Girl saves best friend from choking the day after learning Heimlich maneuver

Keira Silvia and Shailyn Ryan.
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/CBS Boston)

Just one day after learning the Heimlich maneuver, third-grader Shailyn Ryan was able to use her new skill to save her best friend's life.

Ryan and Keira Silvia were eating lunch last week at Marguerite Peaslee Elementary School in Northboro, Massachusetts, when Silvia's face turned red. Ryan could tell Silvia was choking on the hot dog she had been eating, and quickly jumped up and started to give the Heimlich maneuver, just like she had been taught.

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Catherine Garcia, The Week US

Catherine Garcia has worked as a senior writer at The Week since 2014. Her writing and reporting have appeared in Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times, Wirecutter, NBC News and "The Book of Jezebel," among others. She's a graduate of the University of Redlands and the Columbia University Graduate School of Journalism.