Teacher comes to aid of unconscious student

While cheering with the other students on the way to the camp’s breakfast cabin, the 14-year-old suddenly collapsed and experienced a seizure.

“The morning was supposed to be just a regular day. I was to shower and get myself ready for breakfast just like everyone else,” says teacher Janet.

That’s when a student rushed to her cabin for help. Still dressed in her pajamas, Janet remembered the training she had received through ACT’s Teacher Training Program and quickly asked a fellow teacher to call 9-1-1 and told another student to meet the ambulance at the entrance of the camp.

Janet ran to the scene and sprang into action. Finding Samantha on the ground going in and out of consciousness, she placed her in the recovery position, cleared the area of anything that could hurt her and talked to her continuously.

“I was cool and collected. I kept calm,” says Janet, who credits her CPR training with giving her more confidence to take charge. “This experience, after-the-fact, gave me more confidence when it comes to helping out in an emergency.”

Janet first received CPR training at an ACT Foundation Teacher Training Workshop eight years prior in 1998 when her Toronto school, Loretto Abbey High School, implemented mandatory CPR training as part of the school’s curriculum.

Her training paid off.

Samantha returned to consciousness just before the paramedics arrived.

“I was happy she knew what to do,” Samantha says of her teacher. “I’m looking forward to going through the ACT Program (myself). Maybe I can help people around me.”

The ACT High School CPR Program was made possible at Loretto Abbey 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 Toronto is the Kiwanis Club of Toronto. 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.