photo by: Lawrence school district

The American Red Cross presented its Lifesaving Award to Free State High senior Lucas Fearn on Dec. 4, 2024, for successfully performing the Heimlich maneuver to assist art teacher Jacob Lewis in August. Pictured, from left, are Free State SRO Cpl. Kacey Wiltz; Lucas' parents, Joseph and Piper Fearn; Lucas; Lewis; and Jane Blocher, executive director of the American Red Cross of Greater Kansas.

Forty-two-year-old art teacher Jacob Lewis is acutely aware that he would have died in August if it weren’t for his student Lucas Fearn.

“He literally saved my life that day,” Lewis said of the Free State High School senior who is also his teaching assistant.

It was the second week of school, which had gotten out early that day, and the two were alone in Lewis’ ceramics studio, talking about this and that as Lucas was getting ready to leave, and “then this terrible thing happened,” Lewis said.

As they chatted, Lewis enjoyed his usual lunch of a homemade turkey sandwich, until he accidentally bit down on his tongue — hard. In an effort to nurse the sharp pain, he shifted the food around in his mouth, causing him to involuntarily swallow.

“I started to feel like it was going to get stuck, and I had a drink of water to try to help it go down, and that just made it a little bit more firmly stuck,” he said.

That’s when, in a panic, he realized he was choking.

“I got up really fast and went to the trash can and tried to force it out myself, but wasn’t able to, so I used the kind of international sign of choking to indicate to Lucas that I couldn’t breathe, and he jumped up and started squeezing me real hard, giving me the Heimlich,” Lewis said.

Lewis was able to indicate to Lucas to squeeze even harder, and within moments the food dislodged.

Then the emergency gave way to a moment of exhaustion, disbelief and coursing adrenaline before Lucas went for the school nurse as Lewis tried to catch his breath.

“She came and checked me out, and I was fine after that,” Lewis said.

“I was incredibly lucky that he stuck around (talking) as long as he did” instead of leaving at the end of his day. Lewis was also lucky that Lucas had worked as a lifeguard, had had some first aid training and knew what to do.

“He jumped in and did what was necessary,” Lewis said.

If Lucas hadn’t been there, Lewis doesn’t believe he would have survived. The school was largely empty and he doesn’t think he could have found someone to help him in time. As for helping himself, he had himself been trained as a first responder, and in his first year teaching art at Broken Arrow Elementary about a decade ago, he had Heimliched a student who was choking on a piece of hard candy — making his own rescue by Lucas feel like good “karma.” But could he have saved himself? He had read about what to do if you are choking when alone, such as finding a hard chair to thrust yourself against, but all the seats in his ceramics studio are stools, he realized with a little bit of horror when he came back to work the next day.

“I would not have been able to do it myself,” he concluded.

Lucas is humble and loath to talk about the incident, Lewis said. The young hero, though, was reluctantly persuaded to accept the American Red Cross’ Lifesaving Award Wednesday at a ceremony at Free State, and a similar award is in the works from the Lawrence Police Department.

As the kudos accumulate, no one has more praise for Lucas than Lewis, who said he “kind of broke down after it was all over,” when he was by himself.

“I certainly had moments of realization of how close I came” — he pauses — “to not remaining alive. I don’t know what you would call that — moments of clarity.”

Lewis said Lucas’ plan of joining the U.S. Coast Guard after graduation was completely in character.

“He’s probably going to save even more lives than just mine,” Lewis said. “He’s always talked about honor and service and being beneficial to others. … He’s a pretty special guy.”