When a person’s heart fails, maintaining blood flow is essential to keep them alive. And often, Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR), a life saving procedure that’s relatively easy to learn, can accomplish that.
Following advice from the American Heart Association, the school has been educating students on CPR techniques for over a decade.
“Trainer Matt came in 2008, and in 2013, he joined the Health and Wellness Team for teaching, and he has been teaching the fifth grade CPR since that time,” school nurse Julie Doerge said.
Even without proper experience, first responders can perform CPR intuitively by compressing the patient’s chest to the beat of popular rhythms.
“It is such an easy skill to learn that, even if you’ve never learned CPR, you call 911, you push hard and fast on their chest to the beat of songs like, ‘Not Like Us’ by Kendrick Lamar (or) ‘Staying Alive’ by the Bee Gees,” Doerge said.
Alumni of the school generously donated 150 practice kits called “Mini Annies,” designed to train large groups of people with accurate models. The Mini Annie indicated where to press on the chest and how deep to press. In 2014, the Texas congress passed Senate Bill 261, mandating CPR training for older students in public schools.
“In public schools, grades 7 through 12 had to be trained, but not certified,” Doerge said.
Skills and training in CPR extend beyond the school. Real world emergencies may prompt the need for CPR, especially forolder people. Knowing how to perform CPR can prove to be lifesaving even if cardiac arrests are a rare encounter.
“I think it helps you in the world and helps you with your family if someone has a heart attack,” Doerge said. “You’re more likely than not going to use this skill outside of school even though cardiac arrests happen in kids.”
In a life threatening situation, proper care and procedure can mean the difference between life and death. Without the right protocol, execution can’t revive a patient. CPR is a temporary solution, so several compressions won’t fix everything.
“You check the scene for safety: ‘Are there power lines down? Are they in water?’” Doerge said. “And then you check the victim: ‘Are they breathing? Do they have a pulse?’ Then you call 911 and then you start high quality compressions. And one of the things I think you learn pretty quickly is that if you begin CPR, then you can’t stop when they run and call 911.”
It’s not only important for students to get trained in CPR, however. When Doerge came to the school in 2007, CPR training was optional, only reserved to faculty members going on outdoor trips. Since then, the entire faculty has been trained in CPR.
“The people who had been trained were the team that went out to Pecos, and they are also trained in wilderness medicine, as well as in CPR. So I felt at that time, it was important to have more people trained.”
Before COVID, the school brought in an ICU nurse from Parkland Memorial Hospital who helped train and CPR certify the faculty. While the program was temporarily paused during COVID, training quickly resumed afterwards.
“After COVID, we went back to bringing in a company that does certify our faculty and staff,” Doerge said. “They get a certificate that’s good for two years. And that’s a 2.5 hour course in August every year. You learn CPR, you learn AED, they do some first aid.”
