An eight-year-old Pennsylvania boy saved his 20-month-old little sister from choking on a chicken nugget, and he credits John Cena’s Nickelodeon show “The Substitute” for teaching him how to dislodge the stuck food.
“We were driving to my haircut, and I noticed she was starting to choke from a chicken nugget from McDonald’s. I told my dad to pull over,” young Jaxson Dempsey said, according to CNN. “Then I was starting to pat on her back, and it got out.”
Jaxson said he learned the technique from the best teaching advice of all: television.
“It’s called ‘The Substitutes’ on Nickelodeon, and in the very first episode, John Cena was on it, and in the last part, he showed how to save someone when they’re choking,” he continued.
We won’t fault Jaxson for incorrectly pluralizing the show title — the kid is a hero. And he has one grateful dad.
“He amazes us every day, you know — some of the things he says and does, and his actions. We’re simply blessed to have the child that he is, the things that he does for his family, his friends, for his little sister. He’s a good big brother,” Matt Dempsey said.
“If I was by myself and Jaxson wasn’t with me, and I stopped and gave her a chicken nugget, I couldn’t hear her because she was choking. She wasn’t coughing; she wasn’t panicking. She just had no air going through; she wasn’t breathing,” Dempsey continued. “Thank God Jaxson was there because, without him, I don’t know if Lelia would be here.”
And as we say all the time around here: Thank God for John Cena.
Oh, but Matt? Maybe don’t let Jaxson watch Cena’s upcoming HBO Max series “Peacemaker.” That one, unlike “The Substitute,” is definitely not for the kiddos.
Watch the video above to see Cena go undercover as “Mr. Barnes” in “The Substitute,” teaching unsuspecting kids some life-saving techniques while getting a few laughs along the way.
Want more of Cena’s silliness from the kid’s show? Watch the still-occasional WWE Superstar eat trash off the ground in a clip TheWrap had the privilege of premiering ahead of the show’s debut here.
Cena, who worked most of his pro-wrestling career with a shaved head, seems to like the long wigs.