Autistic Staten Island Boy Saves Choking Girl After Lesson From 'SpongeBob'
NEW YORK (CBSNewYork) -- An example from "SpongeBob SquarePants" helped a boy save a girl's life on Staten Island this week.
As CBS2's Meg Baker reported, seventh grader Brandon Williams, who is autistic, acted quickly to help his friend.
"I saved her life -- Jessica got choked by apples," Brandon said. "So I got into that… in the cafeteria, and I saved her life with her belly and her throat."
While talking with Baker, Brandon demonstrated on his father how he performed the Heimlich maneuver on his classmate, Jessica Pellegrino.
"She's a good friend," Brandon said.
Barnes Intermediate School paraprofessional Brian Griffin said Brandon took action before others even knew what had happened.
"I didn't realize what was going on at first, and I realized Jess was choking on an apple," Griffin said. "Brandon started doing the Heimlich and the apple came right out."
Brandon said he learned the life-saving skills on TV. He watches "SpongeBob" every day.
"He picked this up from SpongeBob," said Brandon's father, Anthony Williams, "and thank God he did."
In the episode, SpongeBob saves his buddy, Patrick, who is choking on a fly.
Anthony Williams had no idea how his son knew how to do it.
"People think that you know, just being autistic, you know, they're at a level where they can't do anything," Anthony Williams said. "But you have no idea what happens with these kids. It's amazing what comes out of them."
Brandon, who has quite the sense of humor, lovingly nicknamed his parents. His mother is known as Marshmallow, his father Big Mac.
"He doesn't want any awards; doesn't want any attention," said Brandon's mother, Karen Williams. "But he did something -- we can't even explain how proud we are of him."
"With him anything is possible," Anthony Williams added. "He might be saving my life someday."
Brandon said his past Halloween, he dressed as Superman – and that is what everyone has been calling him after his life-saving acts.
