First Aid classes | School nurse and staff perform CPR and use AED to save co-worker’s life

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First Aid classes School nurse and staff
perform CPR and use AED to save co-workers life
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School nurse Haley Pepper was about to snack on a
donut in her office the morning of Sept. 20, 2019
when she heard a plea for help at Gateway Science
Academy South, the elementary school where she
worked in St. Louis. Im hearing somebody
scream, Nurse! Nurse! Nurse! she
recalled. When she stepped out in the hallway,
she saw the schools vice principal of
operations, Mehmet Okay, who yelled to follow
him. She tossed the donut through the doorway
toward her desk, ran after Mehmet and followed
him downstairs to his office. The schools
custodian was lying motionless on the sofa in
Mehmets office. He was not breathing. The
custodian had been eating an apple while chatting
with Mehmet when his head suddenly drooped.
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Haley would later learn that he had suffered a
heart attack. Haley shook the custodian and
checked his pulse. Erkan Bayer, who is the
schools technology teacher, had also just walked
into the office. Haley immediately started giving
out orders to get assistance. Erkan ran to get
the AED equipment while Mehmet called 911. Haley,
who has a bad back, also quickly realized she
would need a stronger person to lift the
custodian from the sofa and lay him flat on his
back on the floor. I remembered the gym was
nearby, she said. I ran to the gym, scanned
the room and got the P.E. teacher. I said I need
help. Follow me. P.E. teacher, Kenyon Klousia,
and two other staff members had moved the
custodian onto the floor just as the AED arrived.
CPR was soon started while Erkan was on the phone
with dispatchers who were also giving
instructions on the emergency response.As they
performed CPR, Haley said she had no idea if the
custodian had choked on his apple or something
else had stopped his heart and breathing.
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We had to check carefully if our breaths were
going in, and a few times there was apple pieces
in his mouth that had to be cleared away, she
said. So, we were constantly reassessing to make
sure we were doing the right thing. Only
three-and-half-minutes had passed by the time
they started to use the AED and administered the
first of two shocks. When paramedics arrived, the
custodian was breathing and his pulse had
returned. It was probably 15 minutes all around
from the time we called 911 and by the time he
was carried out to the hospital, Haley
recalled. A week later, the custodian called the
school to say hello as he recovered. Haley said
she isnt a runner, but she bolted to greet the
custodian when he returned to the school weeks
later to visit.
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I sprinted to go give him a hug when he came
back to visit that day, she said. He started
crying. I apologized for his sore ribs. As
Haley reflects on the turn of events on Sept. 20,
she said it was easy to make those decisions such
as to call 911 and to get the custodian flat on
his back. She said the hardest decision was
realizing that she would need to do CPR on her
friend.This isnt something where Im just
putting a band-aid on someone, she said. This
is seriousThis just happened to my friend.
Coming to grips with the fact that this is the
problem was a hard decision. She is grateful
that Kenyon was nearby to assist. They both had
participated in CPR and AED training together
that was developed by the American Heart
Association (AHA) and provided by CPR Plus, an
AHA Community Training Center.
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I couldnt have grabbed a better person than the
P.E. teacher, she said. I just thought I needed
somebody strong to lift him off the couch. He was
amazing. We both remembered our steps from
training. We both remembered what each other
would be doing. Haley has performed CPR before.
But she never expected that shed need to perform
the life-saving skill that September morning as
she took a break to eat a snack when there were
no children in the clinic. It was the last
thing on my mind that one of my staff members was
going to have an emergency at work, she said.
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Learn more about First Aid classes. Bergenfield,
NJ, Jersey City, NJ, Livingston, NJ, and Queens,
New York and Gainesville, FL. Source
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