Ottawa student saves brother’s life
She is usually in the library every night until 9:00 p.m. Instead, she chose to head home and join her family for dinner. According to Suzy, this is the best decision she ever made.
When Suzy’s 11 year old brother Nour began choking on a piece of meat, she reacted quickly, using the skills she learned through the ACT program at Nepean High School in Ottawa. She rushed to his aid, performing the Heimlich Manoeuvre.
“I acted on my instincts. His eyes were red. He couldn’t breathe. My mom froze. She was in utter shock,” Suzy says. “It happened so fast. I began the Heimlich Manoeuvre and wouldn’t stop until it worked.”
Suzy is so grateful for having learned CPR in high school. “I am very close to my brothers. Looking back, if I hadn’t been there and known what to do, I don’t think I could live with myself.”
The ACT High School CPR Program was made possible at Nepean High School thanks to generous community and provincial-level support which enabled the donation of mannequins, teacher training and curriculum resources. The lead community partner in Ottawa is the Kiwanis Club of Ottawa. The print partner which donates the printing of the student manual is the Ottawa Citizen. Provincial partners of the program are the Government of Ontario, Hydro One, Shoppers Drug Mart, and The Ontario Trillium Foundation.
The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is an award-winning, national charitable organization dedicated to establishing CPR in high schools across Canada. ACT raises funds to donate mannequins, teacher training, manuals and other materials to schools, and guides schools in program set-up and long-term sustainability. Teachers teach CPR to their students as a regular part of the curriculum. Over 900,000 youth have been trained in CPR through this lifesaving program to date.
Core partners supporting the program in Ontario and throughout Canada are companies in the research-based pharmaceutical industry: AstraZeneca, Bristol-Myers Squibb Canada, Pfizer Canada and sanofi-aventis. They provide ACT’s sustaining funding and are committed to the Foundation’s national goal of promoting health and empowering Canadians to save lives.