Campaign brings lifesaving relief for teacher and school
A Nelson school is leaving nothing to chance after a teacher collapsed from a cardiac arrest, surviving thanks to the quick thinking of her colleagues.
The relief teacher was found unconscious at Nelson Intermediate School just before lunchtime on a school day in March. She had been finishing some work on a day off, and she was discovered by another teacher at the bottom of the stairs between the office and hall
A receptionist with advanced first aid training was nearby, and gave the woman cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until an ambulance arrived.
‘‘Without somebody being there that was able to do CPR, the chances of my being alive by the time the ambulance got there, I think, is pretty small,’’ said the woman, who didn’t want to be named.
With no memory of the three days before or after the cardiac arrest, she has made a full recovery, and was back at work in May.
The attack came out of the blue, as she had no previous personal or family history of heart failure.
The incident was ‘‘pretty traumatic’’ for everyone at the school, and a wakeup call that something needed to be done, deputy principal Simon Patel said. The children stayed in their classrooms with the curtains drawn out of respect, until paramedics took the teacher away.
‘‘I think it was fortuitous that we were alerted to the fact that she was there, quite quickly.’’
The school has since bought an automated external defibrillator (AED), which sits on the wall at the front reception area.
‘‘I want the community to know we’ve got this facility right here should anyone in the community need that,’’ Patel said.
It was simple to use he said. ‘‘You take it out [of the case], it says ‘Press button’ to start, it talks you through the whole thing.’’
The school arranged CPR and defibrillator training for its year 8 pupils and all staff this week. More than 250 children took part in sessions on Monday and yesterday, with staff due to be trained tomorrow, as part of a week-long ‘‘Restart A Heart’’ campaign run by company Resus Nelson.
The children used mannequins linked to a device which gave feedback on things like how fast they needed to go to deliver the 100 to 120 compressions required each minute.
‘‘It was quite hard,’’ pupil Stirling
‘‘I want the community to know we’ve got this facility.’’
Simon Patel, Nelson Intermediate School deputy principal
Jones said.
‘‘I was expecting it to be a lot easier pushing down on the chest. Obviously on a real person, it would be even harder.’’
The session had given him the confidence to know what to do if he came across someone who was unconscious, he said.
Resus Nelson would also provide free training at Nelson Central School and the Nelson Market as part of the week-long campaign, co-founder Natalie Gallagher said.
‘‘The worst thing we do [with a victim] is doing nothing, because we’re worried we’ll do more harm,’’ she said.
‘‘You can’t harm somebody who’s dying. If they’re not responding to you and they’re not breathing normally, then start CPR,’’ said Gallagher, who set up the business with Rosie Whittaker. It offers courses including basic life support.