HUNTSVILLE, Ala. — Five local schools received a donation Monday that can help save lives.
They’re each getting state of the art training kits to help teach students how to administer CPR in emergency situations, and it won’t cost the schools a penny.
Our Sydney Stallworth was there to watch it all happen.
Dr. Quinn Headen, Principal of Hazel Green High School says, “What they’re getting and what they’re being taught by the teachers can actually save a life.”
The gift of life-saving training.
Redstone Federal Credit Union and the American Heart Association have teamed up to donate ‘CPR Anytime’ training kits to five local high schools.
Dr. Quinn Headen says training like this is invaluable. He knows firsthand after one of his students helped save another’s life, thanks to some quick thinking and lessons learned in the classroom.
Dr. Headen tells our reporter about the incident. He explains, it was “A bonfire… Well, we had a student who was on fire. Once they got her and they put the fire out, one student remembered ‘Hey, she’ll go into hypothermia!’ so that student ran and got blankets and covered her up and what they told us is if the student wouldn’t have done that, the other student would have lost her life. She said she learned that in a health science class. So, that’s real life for us in the Hazel Green community.”
Bob Jones, James Clemmons, Hazel Green, Sparkman and Jemison high schools are getting the kits that will help instruct ‘hands-only’, and breath CPR. The kits even have tools to teach students how to save someone who’s choking.
We spoke with some nurses from Sparkman High School who accepted the kit on the school's behalf. Tammy Roberts says, "The students will be excited about it. They always love hands-on and we have a health class. I think this will be excellent to teach in the health class.”
Another nurse at Sparkman, Teffeny Collier-Wright, tells our reporter, “There’s a lot of kids and a lot of families that have their loved ones who live with them and anything can happen at any time. So to have CPR as a tool and a mindset is something that will be with them forever-- for the rest of their lives. So, this is definitely a plus and I’m very grateful.
The nurses say this training is priceless. And, thanks to the donation, the schools don’t have to pay a penny for these top of the line kits.
We spoke with Joe Newberry, the President/ CEO of Redstone Federal Credit Union. Our reporter asked what the estimated cost of the five kits was. Newberry answers, “The total cost was 20,000-- that’s not per kit, that’s the total cost. But, you know, if it saves one life is it worth it? We think so.”
The CPR kits can be used to train up to 20 students at a time.
Administering CPR quickly and efficiently can triple someone’s chances of surviving a medical emergency.