MYERSTOWN, PA--Students of Elco's emergency medical technician program got a lesson they won't soon forget when they were involved in a real-life medical emergency recently at the high school.
An elderly gentleman visiting the school for a musical program suffered cardiac arrest and was found unresponsive; without a pulse.
A number of students as well as the EMT instructor responded to the emergency and initiated CPR, with astounding results — a regained pulse; a restarted heart in a person clinically deceased.
About a dozen students responded to the emergency; a few brought equipment to the scene. Some waited to show the ambulance personnel where to go, and at least four performed chest compressions on the man.
"This is the first time they've had to respond to an emergency of this type," said David Zuilkoski, district superintendent. "The students knew where they needed to go and what they needed to get, and then they responded."
The incident ended, for the students, when the man was transported to a hospital.
"To say I am proud of our students is an understatement," Zuilkoski said. "If we didn't have the EMT program here at the high school, this code 'save' would never have happened, and a gentleman would have lost his life."
Elco was the first school district in the state to offer a program that teaches students to become emergency medical technicians. It may still be the only school district that offers such a program, Zuilkoski said.
Paramedic Dave Kirchner initiated the EMT program in 1981. More...
SOURCE: EMS1.com, Lebanon Daily News