Student saves the life of a restaurant employee with CPR

One evening in June, during a visit to Quebec City, Jean-Philippe and his brother decided to go to a pizza restaurant for dinner. “As soon as we walked into the restaurant, we noticed that everyone was panicking,” he recalls.

Almost immediately, Jean-Philippe understood the reason. “A man was collapsed on the ground of the restaurant. His face was blue,” he describes. The man in question was Jacques, a restaurant employee. “I was on my break, having a soft drink at the counter of the restaurant when I collapsed,” recalls Jacques.

After making sure that the employees called 911, Jean-Philippe took charge of the situation. “Within seconds I realized he had no vital signs, so I started the compressions.” “I told myself that if I don’t, he won’t live,” explains Jean-Philippe. It’s his sense of duty that kept the young man in a state of trance as he continued with the compressions until the arrival of the paramedics.

Had Jean-Philippe not done CPR on me, I wouldn't be here today.

“I knew exactly what to do because of the CPR training I received in high school,” says Jean-Philippe, who recalls getting a lot of practice in his CPR class from his physical education teacher, Larry Adams.

“Not only did Jean-Philippe keep the man alive, he also saved his life,” explains his teacher, Mr.Adams.

Jacques, who suffered a cardiac arrest, agrees with Mr.Adams, “Had Jean-Philippe not done CPR on me, I wouldn’t be here today.”

The ACT High School CPR Program was set up in 2007 at La Polyvalente Jean-Dolbeau in Lac Saint-Jean. In 2013, the program was enhanced with the addition of the ACT High School Defibrillator Training Program, which was made possible thanks to the support of the Government of Quebec, our lead community partner, Rio Tinto Alcan, 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.