CPR | Texas middle-schooler saves dad with CPR

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CPR / Texas middle-schooler saves dad with
CPR
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During a cardiac arrest, every second matters.
Luckily, 12-year-old Aerin Thomas didnt have to
whip out her phone to check what to do when her
dads heart stopped. Shed already been
trained. Aerin and her mom, Angela, were at a
grocery store when they got a call from her dad,
Joe. He wasnt feeling well, and Angela could
hear him struggling for breath. They rushed home
to find Joe conscious but not feeling
well. Angela suggested a trip to an emergency
room near their home in Frisco, Texas, but Joe
said the pain in his chest had started to
subside. But then Angela heard a gasp from the
other room.
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He was just gone, Angela said. She began CPR
while Aerin called 911. But Aerin, remembering
her CPR training from a few months earlier,
noticed her mom wasnt performing it quite right,
so she took over. Aerin maintained steady chest
compressions at the right speed and depth. She
refused to stop until the paramedics
arrived. She wasnt afraid, Angela said.
Aerin was supernaturally calm and
collected. Paramedics said that if Aerin had not
administered proper CPR immediately, her father
may have died that day in April. Frisco Fire
Departments Battalion Chief Paul Henley had
never seen anything like it. That was the first
time I witnessed a child perform CPR on a scene,
he said. I drove her to the hospital afterward,
and I was so proud of how she took initiative.
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That initiative, Henley said, is one of the main
problems he sees. Though life-threatening
emergencies are always tense, bystanders cant
afford to hesitate. CPR sounds daunting, and
people think they cant do it, Henley said. But
if we reinforce the idea that anyone can do it,
that will give people the confidence they
need. About 356,000 Americans each year have a
cardiac arrest outside a hospital. Receiving
immediate CPR during a cardiac arrest can double
or even triple survival rates, according to
statistics from the American Heart Association.
Im so grateful Aerin had the presence of mind
to do everything she needed to, Angela said. At
the hospital, doctors determined a heart attack
had caused Joes heart to start beating
erratically. Since 2012, Frisco ISD has included
hands-on CPR training in PE class for sixth
graders. Currently, 32 states including Texas
require CPR training to graduate high school,
amounting to more than 1.8 million public high
school graduates each year knowing how to perform
CPR.
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Angela, a fifth-grade teacher, said middle school
is the perfect time to teach children CPR. In
fact, Henley said children are often present when
an adult has a cardiac arrest since 70 percent of
cardiac arrests that occur outside a hospital
happen at home. You can never be too young to
learn, Angela said. Aerin agrees CPR training is
a necessity. I didnt know anything about CPR
before taking the class, she said. It was
lifesaving, really, to have practiced it
before. Learn more about CPR. Bergenfield, NJ,
Jersey City, NJ, Livingston, NJ, and Queens, New
York and Gainesville, FL. Source
https//newsarchive.heart.org
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