New student orientation evening was under way at Chaska Middle School West in Chaska, Minn., and gifted-education teacher Lucy Le May, 58, was in her classroom, welcoming parents of incoming sixth-graders. She’d said only a few words before she collapsed. Two parents who knew CPR jumped up and began chest compressions, while others called 9-1-1 on cell phones or ran to find school staff. A teacher who emerged from a nearby classroom took one look at the scene and hurried to retrieve an AED. It took two shocks from the device, but Le May’s heart was beating by the time paramedics arrived several minutes later.
An unlucky gene caused Le May’s cardiac arrest, but her resuscitation that night in April 2008 can be credited to good planning: Five years earlier, school district officials in eastern Carver County had mandated CPR training and placed an AED in every school building. After Le May’s life was saved, she says, “The school added an extra AED in our building—and the next CPR class was packed!”