Shari Beatty incorporated traditional learning with specialty training this week when students in her combined fourth- and fifth-grade class learned about emergency responses from Liliana Heredia-Taylor, director of services for the Lyon County chapter of the American Red Cross.
The Basic Aid Training, which lasts approximately 2 1/2 hours total, is a pilot program overseen by Heredia-Taylor. Training was broken into two sessions, held Wednesday and Friday this week at the school in North Lyon County.
“This is a specific program funded for Lyon County,” Heredia-Taylor said after the presentation Wednesday. “If the schools accept it, we’ll be able to offer it every year.”
Students received workbooks that included coloring, puzzles, mazes and word games in addition to illustrated text about the subjects that were covered in the presentations. They also received emergency kits that included a shield to cover a victim’s face in case they needed to give the two quick breaths that can help a victim breathe.
Among the topics covered as the students learned emergency response skills were rescue breathing, ways to care for people who are choking and how to handle wounds, fractures, electric shock, nosebleeds, bone breaks, falls, animal bites and more.
The program meets district and national standards for education and, Beatty said, is important for the youngsters to learn, especially as the weather gets warmer and they will be playing more actively outside.
Heredia-Taylor said that no matter what emergency faces the youngsters, it is vitally important that they remain calm.
“Why do we want to stay calm?” she asked the class.
“You got to stay calm to call the ambulance, or they won’t understand you,” one girl responded.
Heredia-Taylor agreed, and added that sometimes situations can be unsafe for people who are helping. Closing their eyes, taking a deep calming breath and assessing the scene around them is important for their own safety, too.
“What if there’s something dangerous around them? We might get hurt ourselves. ...You can become what they call a victim yourself,” Heredia-Taylor said. “Stop and think. Once you stop and think, you can act.”
In the interim, call for help or send someone for help, she said, emphasizing to never go inside a stranger’s house while seeking help.
Using a working model of a head and upper torso named Charlie, Heredia-Taylor led the youngsters through the steps of how to react — after calming themselves and calling for help — if they come upon someone who appears to have had an accident or a health-related episode.
Check surroundings for blood, glass, or other unusual situations before taking action, she said. Tap the victim’s shoulder and inquire loudly, “Are you OK? Are you OK?”
If there is no response, the children were told to check the victim’s breathing by placing their own faces near a victim’s nose to see if they can feel breaths and watching the victim’s chest for signs of breathing for 10 seconds, counting “1 one thousand, 2 one thousand ...”
“Did that seem like a long time?” Heredia-Taylor asked before throwing in a good word for hygiene. “Guess what. That’s how long you’re supposed to be washing your hands.”
When Charlie failed to show signs of breathing, Heredia-Taylor said it was time to give him two quick breaths to try to help him breathe.
She showed them how to place two fingers under the chin and two fingers on the forehead to gently ease the head back and open Charlie’s airway.
Each child had an opportunity to go to the front of the room and practice their skills. Heredia-Taylor rolled off a clean shield from a dispenser for each of them to use before they adjusted his head, pinched his nose and covered the dummy’s mouth fully with their own.
When they did it correctly, Charlie’s airbag-lungs filled and raised his chest visibly.
“If you didn’t have the airway open, you can blow ’til you’re blue in the face and no air will go in,” Heredia-Taylor said.
“What system is that?” Beatty asked during the exercise.
Like a Greek chorus, the students replied in unison: “Respiratory!”
Heredia-Taylor moved on to another area of basic aid — choking — where the digestive system and the respiratory system can collide.
Sometimes it is possible to dislodge a piece of food simply by encouraging the choker to cough; sometimes it requires the rescuer to give five firm strikes with the heel of the hand between the victim’s shoulders.
If neither of those techniques are successful, performing the Heimlich maneuver becomes necessary. Using one student as a victim, Heredia-Taylor went behind her to demonstrate: find the victim’s navel, grab your hands together to make a fist, and lift firmly in an upward motion. She encouraged the students to try the maneuver on themselves.
“Push up five times,” she said, smiling as she cautioned them to push lightly. “We don’t want to see your lunch.”
On Friday, the youngsters were scheduled to hear about bones, bruises, cuts, sprains and splints, among other basic-aid topics.
“You will be tested and quizzed,” Beatty told the class as Heredia-Taylor packed up to leave.
Students in English and journal-writing also would need to make sure the course was included in their work.
“Don’t think this is just an assembly,” Beatty said.
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