A Long Island girl is crediting SpongeBob SquarePants, Nickelodeon's eternally optimistic and earnest Sea Sponge, for helping her save her best friend's life.

12-year old seventh graders, Allyson Golden and Miriam Starobin had just finished their music class at Long Beach Middle school, when the teacher cracked a joke.

Laughing hysterically, the two toppled off their chairs. That's when Allyson realized she was choking on the piece of gum, she had been chewing, during the class.

Luckily, Miriam seeing her friend clutching at her throat and turning purple, took immediate action. She pulled her off the ground and performed the Heimlich maneuver three of four times, until the piece of gum finally dislodged and landed five feet in front of Allyson.

While Miriam seemed to have handled the situation like a professional, the twelve-year old has never had any sort of formal training. However, when she saw her friend turning purple, an episode where SpongeBob dislodges a clarinet from Squidward's throat using the same method, flashed before her eyes!

Allyson, who was sure she was going to die, is eternally grateful to Miriam and of course, SpongeBob Squarepants! The girls learned two important lessons from this - Not to chew gum in class and . . . . . . watch a lot of cartoons!

sources: momlogic.com, nypost.com