CANTON, MASS. (WHDH) - A 12-year-old Canton boy is being hailed as a hero for his quick thinking when his grandfather suffered a medical emergency while driving.
Benjamin Bubis took over the wheel when his grandfather had a stroke on a busy highway on Tuesday.
“I knew that if I started to panic things could be way worse,” Bubis said. “It was like a life and death situation so I just knew that I had to stay and like focus.”
Bubis’s 71-year-old grandfather suffered the stroke as he was driving the young Canton soccer player to practice.
He knew something was wrong when his grandfather stopped talking.
“Then suddenly the car started to slow down and it went slower, so I kept yelling, and then I called my mom,” Bubis said.
Yelena Bubis told her son to call 911.
“I could never imagine this happening to him,” she said. “I just know that he’s a very smart kid.”
“I told them what’s happening, that there’s a medical emergency, and at the same time I was steering the wheel with one hand, avoiding crashes,” Benjamin said.
He said it took several minutes to stop the car as others flew by him.
“I pulled it over to this alley on the right side of the road,” Benjamin said. “I pressed park. I pressed (the) start and stop button. I pressed all them, and eventually, it stopped. I don’t know how.”
Paramedics found them and took the grandfather to UMass Memorial Medical Center.
“He’s making a very, very good recovery,” said one of the grandfather’s doctors.
Yelena Bubis said she’s proud of her son for taking control of a scary situation.
“He saved the life of his grandfather,” she said. “It was on the highway. I mean I can’t even imagine what he went through.”
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