Macomb County Boy Scout earns national award for saving mom's life

FOX 2 - Jennifer Yakubesan gets emotional thinking what happened earlier this year when they gathered around the table to eat a quick pasta dinner before church.

"I wouldn’t be here today, I really wouldn’t, if it wasn’t for him," she said.

Jennifer and her son Andrew take us back to that day.

"I started choking, I couldn’t get it up and it wasn’t coming up, and I looked at my husband and my son, and I started make this kind of patting my chest," Jennifer said.

"I immediately jumped in, I don’t know what it was, I think someone was with me - God or something," said Andrew.

"I was crying the whole time of course, 'This is it,'" said Jennifer. "I looked at my husband, I was thinking why isn’t he on the phone dialing 911."

Jennifer tells us she was moments away from losing consciousness - until her 13-year-old son - using the first-aid skills he learned in Boy Scouts and sprang into action.

"I got behind her, I started performing the Heimlich, that didn’t work," he said. "So I was like, I moved my hand, and I hit her back, and then the food came out. It was a huge relief."

Andrew saved his mom's life and on Tuesday night, the Boy Scouts of America honored him for his heroic actions with a National Merit Award.

"This is a very rare award and I am very pleased to present you with this certificate of merit and thank you very much for everything you are doing in scouting," said Peter Townsend, district advancement chairman.

His mom is forever grateful to her son and the Boy Scouts for teaching her son the Heimlich maneuver.

Andrew, who is in 8th grade at Michigan Connections Academy, hopes this will inspire others to learn - because you never know, when it could save someone's life.

"(I am) beyond proud, our whole family is," she said.

"A huge relief," Andrew said. "I saved my mom, it took a while to accept it, and I was like, 'My mom is safe, that's really good.' I'm going to have my mom around for longer."