On April 6  St. Charles High School hosted the St. Charles County Ambulance District to help teach the seniors how to perform CPR chest compressions on test dummies and the Heimlich maneuver.

Dr. Ted Happel helped set this up for the school for the first time since the outbreak of the COVID-19 outbreak. Prior to COVID, SCCAD helped train seniors for the past four years.

 “I think it’s a good skill for everyone to kind of have cause you just never know when you’re out doing something when someone might have a cardiac arrest or need assistance,” said Happel.

Chadwin Young, who works for SCCAD, also helped set this up for the students. He helped many students, giving tips as well as improving techniques for students who were already CPR certified. 

“Their goal is to get as many people as they can trained in case there is an emergency and people can be there to help them,” said Happel. 

The training happened during academic intervention period, AIP, where students watched a video explaining how the chest compressions should be done, followed by practicing on test dummies. The EMTs also showed how to perform the Heimlich maneuver, which students say was very helpful. 

“I thought it was very very helpful cause I personally didn’t know how to do it correctly, but now I do,” senior Jayden Sanford said.

Young also gave the seniors valuable information and facts about why CPR is such an important task to learn. “It on average takes 5-7 minutes for paramedics to get to your house, just by performing CPR compressions you can double or triple a person’s chance to survive.”

Sanford, Young and Happel seem to all be in agreement of hosting SCCAD for next year’s graduating class as well.