Student saves a teen at festival

One Friday in September, William and his friends were enjoying an evening of music and fun at the “Festival Western de St-Tite”, when an emergency struck.

“Throughout the night, I noticed one of the guys nearby had been drinking far too much. I tried stopping him, but he wouldn’t listen to me, so I kept an eye on him.” Not long after, William saw the young man collapse to the ground.

“Right away, I ran up to him and placed him in the recovery position so he wouldn’t choke on his vomit.” As people gathered around the young man, William managed the scene with confidence. “I was the only one there who knew what to do because of the high school training I received,” he shares.

After calling 911, he asked everyone to create space so the young man could get some fresh air. He monitored him until the arrival of the paramedics. “In the ambulance, his heart stopped beating, so they had to defibrillate him.”

“I feel happy that I intervened so rapidly. If nobody had done anything, he might have not lived. Thankfully, he’s doing very well now.”

Speaking of the CPR training he’s received through the ACT High School CPR Program in his physical education class, William says “As soon as I saw him collapse, my reflex was to revert back to the CPR that I learned at school.”

William’s teacher, Mr. Trahan agrees with him – “Being CPR trained, he was able to react with confidence and without hesitation.”

The ACT High School CPR Program was set up in Paul-Le-Jeune High School thanks to the support provided by the Government of Quebec and ACT’s health partners, AstraZeneca Canada, Pfizer Canada and Sanofi Canada.

The Advanced Coronary Treatment (ACT) Foundation is an award-winning, national charitable organization dedicated to establishing CPR and AED training programs in high schools across Canada. ACT raises funds to donate mannequins and teacher training to schools, and guides schools in program set-up and long-term sustainability. Over 3.2 million youth have been trained in CPR by their teachers through this lifesaving program to date.