Jim Jones’ CPR knowledge came in handy recently. The “We Set The Trends” rapper was reportedly able to save the life of his photographer and good friend, Jerry “Flee Flicks” Flete, who began having a scary coughing fit while hanging out with the 45-year-old in Florida earlier this week.
“I just saw Flee sitting, just going through something that didn’t seem good like he was choking,” Jones recalled when discussing the medical emergency in an interview with Inside Edition. “He couldn’t breathe, and his eyes was going back in his head, and he was catching a bit of a seizure. I actually didn’t know what was going on. Kind of scared me.”
When giving his recount of the events, Flete explained, “I didn’t know what was going on at the moment. I guess everything happened so fast. But I had an out-of-body experience. I felt like I was telling myself to come back to myself. Then I just, I guess when I snapped out of it, Jim was giving me chest compressions.”
The photographer said that his famous friend was “hugging him” and doing chest compressions. “That’s how I started breathing,” he revealed, crediting the Bronx-born star with saving his life.
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As HipHopDX points out, it remains unclear exactly what caused Flete to begin choking, although he’s vowed to take his health more seriously following the scare, revealing that he’s been “eating better and hitting the gym,” a decision that Jones has likely co-signed, as he’s something of a health nut himself.
“Movement is medicine,” the El Capo hitmaker has been quoted saying. “The easiest exercise you can do is make sure that you walking and you running a little bit. I work out extremely hard so I can eat how I want to eat, but that’s not an excuse.”
“I should be eating way better than I do, and I try to eat 50 percent better than I have yesterday. So I’m a work in progress myself. Health is wealth. I encourage everybody to take care of themselves. Take care of you. Take it as if it’s a job, and every day you should do something different that’s going to help you live longer.”
Check out Jim Jones’ full interview with Inside Edition below, and be sure to check out our interview with the recording artist from our 12 Days of Christmas series here.