Gautier Middle School student uses YouTube to save classmate’s life

GAUTIER, Miss. (WLOX) - Gautier Middle School eighth grader Tristan Cabe is being heralded as a hero.

“He started choking and I asked him if he was OK,” said Cabe. “Someone yelled and told me to do something. I went behind him and did the Heimlich maneuver and then he didn’t die.”

Cabe never imagined saving someone’s life inside the school cafeteria. He said, as an only child, he was just doing what would make his mother proud.

“She liked what I did,” he said while smiling. “She said, ‘that’s how I taught you.’”

His quick action stemmed from watching a Heimlich maneuver tutorial video on YouTube. Confident he could pull off the life-saving technique, he rushed into action.

“It was my first time performing it on someone,” the student said. “I had no experience. I had only watched YouTube and I remembered.”

It was another act of bravery coming from a Pascagoula-Gautier School District student this year. In July, Pascagoula High School rising senior Corion Evans and his friends gained national attention after helping save four people from drowning in the Pascagoula River.

“To actually save someone’s life, I was just very ecstatic,” Cabe added. “He said ‘thank you man, I nearly died.’ I was like, ‘no problem.’”

School leaders said the students in the cafeteria clapped for Cabe after they realized what he had done. He also received a “Super Gator” award.

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