Health Watch: Rutland middle schoolers get hands-only CPR training
RUTLAND TOWN, Vt. (WCAX) - The American Heart Association says when a person suffers a cardiac arrest, their survival depends on how quickly CPR can be performed and can double or triple their chance of living. Students at Rutland Town School are now learning to make an impact with hands-only CPR.
Listening to the easy-to-remember tune of “Staying Alive” by the Bee Gees, seventh and eighth graders are learning the steps to administer hands-only CPR.
“Talking to some of the students just now they said, ‘You know, I hope I never have to do this. But if I do, at least I know the first step in saving somebody’s life,’” said Rutland Town School Principal Sarah Tetzlaff.
For teachers at the school, the first step for them is always about raising awareness. “If anything, it brought them awareness on to do -- at least to pick up the phone and call somebody or to attempt. So, it’s like he said, 40% of people don’t know anything about CPR, and now we just educated two grade levels to at least be able to attempt and take that first step to maybe help save someone’s life,” said Michael Rowe, a Rutland Town PE and health teacher.
Nick Strance, a former teacher, now works as a school engagement director for the American Heart Association. “After teaching for 15 years, I taught so many of those students and knew their limitations. And what I could do to help them out as students and teaming up with the American Heart Association, was the best resource I always found,” Strance said. “Hopefully it jumpstarts them to learning CPR and becoming certified before they graduate high school.”
According to the association, around 70% of out-of-hospital cardiac arrests happen in homes and only 46% of people who experience an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest get immediate help they need before professional help arrives. That’s why Strance is teaching students how crucial the first few minutes are to saving someone’s life.
“For younger students to learn, we just learn that it’s so important, those first crucial 10 minutes. So, hands-only CPR, just a great life-saving skill -- number one -- gives that victim a chance to survive,” Strance said.
“I think it’s very heartwarming, reassuring. I think eventually we would love to have all our middle school kids fully trained in CPR and first aid and this is just one step to getting them there,” Tetzlaff said.
The AHA partners with over 100 schools across Vermont.
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