Lots of kids would say John Cena is their hero, but his work has led one boy himself to be a hero.
Jaxson Dempsey, 8, of Hazleton, Pennsylvania, saved his sister, Lelia, 20 months, from choking after watching the popular wrestler and movie star explain how to do so on the Nickelodeon TV show “The Substitute,” reports WNEP in Scranton, Pennsylvania.
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"We were driving to my haircut, and I noticed she was starting to choke (from) a chicken nugget from McDonald's," Jaxson told WNEP. "I told my dad to pull over. Then I was starting to pat her back, and it got out."
Jaxson credited Cena’s appearance on “The Substitute” with giving him the tools he needed to spring into action.
"It's called ‘The Substitute’ on Nickelodeon, and in the very first episode, John Cena was on it, and on the last part, he showed how to save somebody when they're choking," he said.
The hidden-camera series puts disguised celebrities undercover as substitute teachers to surprise students in classrooms, according to the show’s description on Nickelodeon’s website. Cena actually appeared on “The Substitute” during the third episode of the first season in 2019 and put on the front of a CPR instructor with long hair and a bushy beard.
Jaxson’s father, Matt, said the family is lucky Jaxson knew just what to do.
"If I was by myself and Jaxson wasn't with me, and I stopped and I gave her a chicken nugget, I couldn't hear her because she was choking,” Dempsey said.
“She wasn't coughing. She wasn't panicking. She just had no air going through. She wasn't breathing. So thank God Jaxson was there because, without him, I don't know if Lelia would be here."