Autistic Student Saves Choking Classmate Thanks To SpongeBob Squarepants

The Staten Island Advance reports that Brandon Williams was eating lunch at Barnes Intermediate School on October 28 when he noticed that classmate Jessica Pellegrino was choking on a piece of apple.

When 13-year-old Brandon realized that his classmate, Jessica Pellegrino, was struggling to breathe, he quickly jumped up and pulled Jessica to her feet. After the incident, Brandon’s class had a party to celebrate his heroism.

It turns out that Spongebob Squarepants is more important than we thought.

When Brandon’s father, Anthony, asked Brandon where he learned to give the Heimlich maneuver, Brandon instantly replied, “Learned it on SpongeBob”.

“The cafeteria is always very noisy, but I heard the kids calling me”, he recalled. And we’re glad he did.

“I went like this”, said Brandon, demonstrating the maneuver on his dad, Anthony, in their Great Kills home. “We’re proud of him”. “He was incredible. I’ve never seen anything like it”.

After hearing about what happened, adults at the school said Brandan deserved a medal – but the modest teenager said he didn’t need one, NBC reported.

Bizarrely, it’s not the first time the Nickelodeon character has saved a life. A 12-year-old girl on Long Island who saved her friend from choking on gum in 2010 also credited the cartoon.