Flynn Kelly (in red) used his Red Cross skills to save his friend Pat Garvey (in green) from choking.

If you'd asked 16-year-old Washingtonville High School 10th grader Flynn Kelly if he felt confident to save a life after he and fellow varsity swim team members completed the Professional level CPR and AED unit in their first Lifeguard Training class this spring, he might well have said no. Yet a week later, his Red Cross training allowed him to do exactly that.

It happened after the end-of-season dinner for team members and their parents held on April 7 in the school cafeteria.

Flynn and fellow team member, 15-year-old Patrick Garvey, were in the hall helping clean up, when Patrick bit the tag off the new swim jacket the school had given each of the boys. He then accidentally inhaled the 1½” long plastic string attached to the tag, and it got caught in his throat.

Patrick drank water, hoping the string would go down, but it didn"t. He even swallowed a piece of cake, hoping to push the string down that way. That didn’t work, either. "My air wasn’t completely cut off, but I wasn’t going to stay like that for long. I wasn’t able to speak,” said Patrick.

Flynn asked if he was choking. When Patrick nodded “yes,” Flynn immediately gave his friend five back blows and performed five abdominal thrusts, which failed to dislodge the string. Flynn performed the entire procedure again. This time, Patrick vomited up the string.

Mary Marakovits, Washingtonville High School Physical Education teacher said, “I’ve been teaching lifeguarding since 1977, and I’ve trained a lot of people. We’ve had many students come through our programs who have rescued people in the water. But this is probably the first time in a school setting we’ve had a student use abdominal thrusts.

“I’m proud of my friend,” said Patrick.  Flynn said, “I feel proud that I took something from this class and used it in real life. I didn’t think I was capable of doing it.”

The Greater New York Chapter will present Flynn with a Certificate of Excellence at the May 19, 2008 Washingtonville Central School District Board of Education meeting.