A Queens teacher saved a student’s life when the sixth-grader began having a seizure and stopped breathing, according to the New York Daily News.
Amy Spears, 44, a math teacher at Louis Armstrong Middle School in East Elmhurst, saw the girl collapse and start convulsing in the hallway outside her classroom. Then the teen stopped breathing.
“I started doing CPR immediately and called people to get help and call 911,” said Spears.
Spears, who has been a teacher for 21 years and lives on Long Island with her husband and two kids, gave the student one shock with a defibrillator with the help of Assistant Principal Dianne Hayden. Paramedics arrived shortly after and the child was then taken to Elmhurst Hospital Center. She is expected to make a full recovery.
“I never really thought I would ever have to do this,” Spears told ABC News, “and I used to say to myself there’s no way I’m going to be able to do this I would probably panic.”
NYC teachers receive CPR and AED training every two years. An AED (Automated External Defibrillator) is a medical device that analyzes the heart’s rhythm. If necessary, it delivers an electrical shock, known as defibrillation, which helps the heart re-establish an effective rhythm. It is the only effective treatment for restoring a regular heart rhythm during sudden cardiac arrest and is an easy to operate tool for someone with no medical background, according to the American Red Cross. New York State law requires every school in the state to have at least one AED machine in the building.
“This is a team effort,” Hayden said. “We train together. We do the drills together and we worked together yesterday and we’re happy for the outcome.”
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