9-year-old boy saves sister from drowning using CPR learned from television

By Amina Khan, Los Angeles Times
April 19, 2011, 11:58 a.m.
A 9-year-old boy saved his drowning sister by administering CPR -- which, he says, he learned by watching television.

Tristin Saghin and his family were visiting his grandmother in Mesa, Ariz., when his grandmother and mother suddenly realized that the 2-year-old girl had gone missing. They ran outside and found her floating in the swimming pool. As his elders called for help, Tristin began performing chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth on the toddler, according to the ABC15 news report. "I knew what I was doing," he is reported to have said.

Can the boob tube truly serve as an unwitting educational tool for life-saving emergency medical procedures? Perhaps it's not as far-fetched as it sounds. Studies have shown that even if you don't have training, it can't hurt to try until the paramedics arrive.

CPR training typically takes the better part of a day, but the American Heart Assn. has a minute-long YouTube video that teaches hands-on CPR basics. The association has said that all secondary school students should be trained in CPR.

Unfortunately, they are not kidding. Don't think a CPR bill has a chance.

Antiscience bill passes Tennessee House vote

A bill clearly intended to promote and protect antiscience passed in the Tennessee State House yesterday, by a vote of 70 – 23.

Let that sink in. 70 to 23.

The bill is another in a long series of creationist (and broadened into other antiscience topics) wedge bills designed to weaken the teaching of real science in public schools. The summary makes that clear:

This bill prohibits the state board of education and any public elementary or secondary school governing authority, director of schools, school system administrator, or principal or administrator from prohibiting any teacher in a public school system of this state from helping students understand, analyze, critique, and review in an objective manner the scientific strengths and scientific weaknesses of existing scientific theories covered in the course being taught, such as evolution and global warming.

On the surface this sounds like legit science; after all, science thrives on understanding the weaknesses in ideas so they can be improved. But if you read that last part, conservative antiscience rears its head: the two specific cases mentioned are evolution and global warming.

That doesn’t sound like real science is the motivation behind this bill — and reading quotes by its supporters confirms it. What this really means is that if a teacher wants to declare the Earth is 6000 years old (or make some other clearly wrong ideologically-based claim), that teacher cannot be stopped.

Similar antiscience bills (usually given the Orwellian title of "academic freedom bills") have been created in Oklahoma (though defeated, barely), Mississippi, and in Louisiana, where creationist and part-time exorcist Governor Bobby Jindal signed it into state law.

So this bill passed the House, but it still has to pass the Tennessee Senate. They have their own version up for vote targeted for April 20. If you live in Tennessee, I urge you to go to the NCSE website, read up on this, and then write your local representative.

First-aid student helps keep man alive for paramedics

12/Apr/2011

A HAMILTON Senior High School student administered life-saving first aid to a critically injured man, using techniques he had recently learnt at a school-based senior first aid course.

Year 11 student Dion Sgherza (15) performed CPR on the unconscious man for 15 to 20 minutes before the arrival of paramedics, who continued the treatment with his help and information.

The man was suffering life-threatening breathing constrictions from a throat injury.

Dion, a keen football player, was commended by police for his efforts in saving the man by remaining calm and remembering the skills he was taught at school.

Principal Donna McDonald said the school was proud of Dion, who should be seen as a role model in the community.

“He learnt the skills, he was called upon to use them and he did his absolute best at the time,” she said.

“He’s a real role model.”

Completion of a three-day senior first aid course is compulsory for all students undertaking Vocational Education and Training (VET) courses at the school and Mrs McDonald said that up to 40 per cent of staff and students at the school held current certificates.

“We want to give students good skills that are required out in our society,” she said.

“We not only train our senior students, but we also train our staff.”

More than 40 Year 11 VET students attended the Australian Red Cross course in term one this year, helping them to achieve their Tafe training certificates.

School spokeswoman Leeana Manifis-Gott said a first aid certificate provided the mutual benefit of an ideal qualification for a student’s resume and an important skill to have in the workplace and community.

Dion, who is part of the school’s industrial studies program, said he was pleased he had the skills to help in a real-life situation and recommended a first aid course to everyone.

“I would definitely recommend it because there’s a high chance that you may need to use it one day,” he said.

When the pieces are in place, it works most of the time.

CLINTON TWP. — A 16-year-old girl collapsed in cardiac arrest during cheerleader tryouts at North Hunterdon High School on Tuesday night and was flown to Morristown Memorial Hospital after receiving CPR from police, school staff and a parent.
She was “awake and doing OK” at the hospital this morning, according to school spokeswoman Maren Smagala. The victim’s mother told police that her daughter suffers from sports-induced asthma, which may have caused the attack.
The school this afternoon issued a statement congratulating the coaches and cheerleaders “for acting quickly and bravely during cheerleading tryouts last night.”
As part of tryouts, the girls were jogging through the hallways of the school when the junior collapsed in a second-floor hallway and went into a seizure, Clinton Township police said. Other girls reported noticing that she was experiencing shortness of breath before she collapsed.
The school told what happened next: Coach Veronica Conly responded quickly to the cheerleader and told cheerleader Lauren Froschhauser to call 9-1-1 on her cell phone. Head Coach Tiffany Slowinski used her two-way radio to advise trainer Karen Korbul of the emergency.
Conly found that the girl had no pulse and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) on the her. She did about seven cycles of CPR before Coach Allison Arth arrived to help. Arth used the automated external defibrillator (AED) to help revive the girl’s heart. Kelly Strauss, the mother of another girl at the tryouts, also helped with the effort, police said.
By then, Clinton Township Police Officer John Tiger arrived and continued CPR on the cheerleader until the emergency medical personnel arrived. Clinton rescue squad and the Hunterdon Medical Center paramedics arrived and took over reviving the teen.
The State Police Northstar medical airlift helicopter landed around 7:15 p.m. and flew the patient to Morristown Hospital. Around 8 p.m., Slowinski confirmed with the teen’s parents that she was in stable condition.
“Thanks to all the people that were on site helping during the emergency,” Principal Mike Hughes and Athletic Director John Deutsch said in the school’s statement.
“We are very proud at the response and attention that was demonstrated by the coaches and cheerleaders. You’ve demonstrated Lion pride!”
All coaches at North are certified in CPR. Conly is also a certified basic life support (BLS) and first aid trainer.

11 Year Old Boy saves Brother

HUDSON, N.H. -- An 11-year-old boy is being hailed as a hero for saving his 8-year-old brother from choking.
Nathan Carbonneau, 8, said he was having a good time at dinner in February until he started choking on a carrot.
"I was laughing, and it was in my mouth, and I didn't chew it yet, and it went right down, and I started choking," he said.
Nathan's mother, Sherry Carbonneau, said it was clear something was wrong.
"He's red, red, red in the face, and I am just shaking," she said.
Carbonneau said she has been trained in CPR, but she admitted that she panicked.
"When I told the Red Cross this, they said it's typical for a parent to react that way," she said. "They get nervous."
But Nathan's older brother, Griffin, got over his nervousness.
"I was nervous at first, but then I thought, 'I know what to do now,'" he said.
Griffin used the Heimlich technique on his brother, dislodging the carrot after four tries.
Griffin said he learned the technique in his fifth-grade class at Presentation of Mary School in Hudson, which teaches a Red Cross school safety class.
"It teaches school-aged children from elementary to high school ways to be prepared for emergencies," said Maria White, CEO of the American Red Cross of New Hampshire.
Since 2005, Oracle Systems in Nashua has funded the program.
"It makes us choke up when we think how successful it's been and how lucky we are that it's worked out," said Steven Hagan, Oracle vice president of engineering.
Griffin said he's glad he had the training to save his brother's life.
"I would encourage it for as many kids as possible to take it, and also for adults," he said. "It's just one of those things that you never know when you'll need it."

Three saves in three days. It works.

By Julie Carey
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People performing CPR helped the Fredericksburg Fire Department save three lives in three days, officials said.

At a fire station in downtown Fredericksburg, Va., the trucks roll on about 10 calls per day, and most calls are fairly routine. Months could go by without an opportunity for what they call a "save" -- reviving a patient on the edge of death -- so last week's three saves were unusual.

"Three in three days, I haven’t seen that in 20 years," Sgt. Jay Skinner said.

On March 19 at the Amtrak station, an elderly woman collapsed on the train, and passengers started CPR. Amtrak personnel and bystanders also hooked up the automated external defibrillator (AED) to the victim, though a shock wasn't needed. An IV and drugs produced a pulse.

On March 20, a woman in her 60s went into respiratory distress at a downtown restaurant. A 911 dispatcher gave the bystanders CPR instructions. When firefighter Mike Athenry arrived, he took over.

"We attached our AED to the patient," he said. "The AED allowed us to shock the victim. One shock was delivered. We started CPR again. The AED told us no shock was needed. We checked for a pulse. We had one."

Then on March 21, a patient at a dentist's office went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing. Rescue crews found the doctor and his staff had already started CPR and attached the AED, which advised two shocks. The second revived the woman.

"The community definitely played a part," said Patricia Derr, of the Fredericksburg Fire Department. "Bystander CPR is very important. The quicker that they start having someone do compressions on them, the better their chances of survival."

Such saves are becoming more common because CPR guidelines have changed for civilians, Skinner said. With rapid chest compressions the simpler standard now, more are willing to try CPR.

"It's amazing," Skinner said. "It really is. To see them from the brink of death to actually having a pulse and breathing again, I mean, that's what makes this job worth having."

If you want to learn CPR, go to the websites of the American Heart Association or the Red Cross to find a class near you.

Bringing victims and resources together

Here's a report of another iPhone app for CPR / AED resource matching. See also Dr. Dana Elliott's "AED" Nearby smart phone app. Both these initiatives try to bring cardiac arrest victims and AED's together. The app described below also alerts CPR-trained personnel who have signed up to be notified.

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Back in January I wrote about an ambitious new mobile application that has a very good chance of saving lives (perhaps even many lives). And it’s just gotten support from the City of San Francisco, which is the first major city to pledge support for this very important service.

The application itself is called Fire Department. Download it, and you’ll be asked if you’re trained in CPR. Click ‘Yes’, and the application will then passively monitor your location (without draining your phone’s battery). Here’s where the life-saving comes in: if someone calls 911 to report a possible heart attack victim, 911 dispatchers can send an alert to anyone in the vicinity with CPR training who has this app on their phone. They’ll immediately receive a push notification with the location of the victim, as well as the locations of any nearby automatic external defibrillators (AEDs). The whole process only takes a matter of seconds. Minutes are absolutely critical in these situations, and the immediate initiation of CPR before an ambulance arrives can be life saving.

But there’s still a lot of work to be done. At this point the service is only available in the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District where the initiative got its start (Lucas Hirst, who has helped spearhead the effort, is a friend of mine from high school). San Francisco is now on board, and is asking volunteers to help build a map of AEDs (which frequently go unused in emergencies because people simply don’t know they’re there). San Francisco hopes to have the technology working by the end of the year. The city’s website for the initiative is right here.

The news was announced at an event today by SF Fire Chief Joanne Hayes-White and City Attorney Dennis Herrera, along with Fire Fighters Union Local 798. Now if only they’d fix the startup tax situation.