Heather Godin, the school’s health teacher, had her first and second period meet in the EDC building on Mon. 25th to learn hands-only Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR).
President Les Bronte and Training Center Coordinator Trisha Bodahi from Beverly Hills CPR taught students four different life-saving CPR techniques.
The instructors made sure to ingrain the hands-only CPR into each student’s mind. They voiced a strong need for all to learn CPR incase of an emergency.
“Someone is found dead, [in] cardiac arrest. We have to go up to them and see if they are unresponsive. Then we start CPR on them,” Bodahi said. “So this course is called hands-only CPR. We want to save a life. Get on the chest as quick as possible, and hope we make a difference in somebody’s life.”
The interactive experience used several indications to get each student to memorize the training incase of an instance of potential danger. For example, the students had to repeat “unresponsive,” and “man down,” as a beginning cue to start the CPR process.
Students had to face the back of the classroom and immediately turn around once the cue was spoken. Several steps were taken to determine if the model needed CPR:
Check your surroundings.
In a real emergency it’s always best to check your surroundings. If your environment is unsafe (i.e. electricity, fire, building coming down), then you must protect yourself and find a place of safety. Look to the left and to the right to determine whether you are safe enough to perform the task.
Determine if the person is unresponsive.
Place both hands on either side of the unresponsive person’s chest and hit it several times while repeating, “are you okay?” If the action doesn’t prompt an answer then the person is determined to be unresponsive, but if the person is responsive then no CPR is needed.
Ask someone to call 911.
If you are going to be doing the CPR, then it is crucial that you must get someone else to call 911. The CPR process stops when the emergency services arrive.
Start CPR.
Place the right hand firmly on the middle of the person’s chest and align the left hand with it. Press down with an interval of 30 times. Once 30 is reached, start again repeatedly. This 30 interval has to be precise. It won’t be effective if the count is too slow or too fast.
Be calm and wait for emergency services to arrive.
Counting down also helps for you to be calm. Make sure that the person is watched over until emergency services arrive.
Bronte and Bodhi suggested singing “Stayin’ Alive,” by Bee Gees. The two periods had different ideas of songs to sing while during the CPR. Godin’s second period class sang “They Not Like Us,” by Kendrick Lamar.
The songs were suggested because the beat is the perfect rhythm for the 30 count interval of the CPR.
“Today we got to learn how to properly do CPR, how to properly address a wound, how to do the heimlich maneuver, and it was a very interesting class, very educational.” junior Bay Bryd said.
Bronte and Bondahi encouraged students to sign up for a class to become officially certified in CPR. The official class is heart saver CPR AED & first aid and they can be reached at [email protected] or by their number 310-281-2753.
