The Health classes at AHS have been CPR (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation) certified by Meagan Shrewsbury of the American Heart Association.
Mrs. Hiemstra, Health and P.E Teacher, when asked why she believes it is important to be CPR certified, “It’s important because if you are in a situation where you need to save someone’s life you should know how to. It’s not even just about the certification, it’s about knowing how to save a life properly.” Hiemstra also expressed that the students seemed very interested and excited about learning CPR. One of these students was Trevor Zurn, “I’m excited!” Trevor exclaimed when asked about how he was feeling about CPR certification. Trevor was also very adamant about the importance of being CPR certified, “This is super important, I do a lot of sports which can increase the risk of heart attacks so knowing how to potentially save a life is super important to me.” I was also able to speak with Meagan Shrewsbury, AHA Basic Life Support instructor, about the importance of teaching students basic life support. “It’s very important, there are less and less people teaching us these basic skills which has led to way more deaths caused by cardiac arrest.” This is supported by the fact that the majority of deaths caused by cardiac arrest were due to a lack of CPR being performed on the patient
After the health class was given a presentation on how to administer BLS (Basic Life Support) they were then brought to the AHS Cheer room and given an in-person demonstration of how to administer BLS and then were given hands-on practice. After 3 sessions, 1 with an adult patient, one with a child patient, and one with an infant patient they were finally ready to take their test. The test was over assessing the scene, administering CPR; and lastly, using the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) on the patient. The test went extremely well with every student passing and being CPR certified.
The last thing Meagan told me was about the true importance of being CPR certified, “Of course I want them to save lives but it’s more than that; hopefully, this experience will lead to many of these kids wanting to teach BLS the same as I do. We need more BLS instructors in this world. Hopefully, they are next!” Hopefully, this has made you consider getting CPR certified too!
