11 Year Old Boy saves Brother

HUDSON, N.H. -- An 11-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero for saving his 8-year-old brother from choking.
Nathan Carbonneau, 8, said he was having a good time at dinner in February until he started choking on a carrot.
"I was laughing, and it was in my mouth, and I didn't chew it yet, and it went right down, and I started choking," he said.
Nathan's mother, Sherry Carbonneau, said it was clear something was wrong.
"He's red, red, red in the face, and I am just shaking," she said.
Carbonneau said she has been trained in CPR, but she admitted that she panicked.
"When I told the Red Cross this, they said it's typical for a parent to react that way," she said. "They get nervous."
But Nathan's older brother, Griffin, got over his nervousness.
"I was nervous at first, but then I thought, 'I know what to do now,'" he said.
Griffin used the Heimlich technique on his brother, dislodging the carrot after four tries.
Griffin said he learned the technique in his fifth-grade class at Presentation of Mary School in Hudson, which teaches a Red Cross school safety class.
"It teaches school-aged children from elementary to high school ways to be prepared for emergencies," said Maria White, CEO of the American Red Cross of New Hampshire.
Since 2005, Oracle Systems in Nashua has funded the program.
"It makes us choke up when we think how successful it's been and how lucky we are that it's worked out," said Steven Hagan, Oracle vice president of engineering.
Griffin said he's glad he had the training to save his brother's life.
"I would encourage it for as many kids as possible to take it, and also for adults," he said. "It's just one of those things that you never know when you'll need it."