On Monday the West Bend Common Council will host American Heart-saver Recognition Awards.
There will be three heart-attack survivors and their rescuers who will be recognized for CPR skills.
One of the survivors was written up on http://www.washingtoncountyinsider.com in February when UW-Washington County associate lecturer Cherie Hart jumped into action and saved her student, Jerry Williams.
A portion of the article is below.
The scenario that occurred the first day of this semester played out in Hart’s second-floor office at UWWC. “It was January 25 and one of my students was in my office and he started convulsing and lost consciousness,” Hart said.
Within a minute, Hart started CPR. “I was by myself, I looked in the halls twice and there was nobody around.”
Hart’s student, Jerry Williams, is taking her Fundamentals in music course. He suffers from ventricular fibrillation.
“I retired about five years ago but taught traditional shop and tech-ed,” Williams said. “I find it ironic I’ve taught electronics for 34 years and I have some faulty wiring.”
Hart is small in stature and Williams is well over 6-feet tall.
“I needed somebody to help me get him onto the ground to properly do CPR,” she said. “The third time I looked out there was a kid, Tyler Schulz, walking by. We got Jerry on the ground so I could really do compressions.”
It was about 25 years ago Hart took a CPR class from the Red Cross.
“I don’t know why but it stuck,” she said. “It’s not hard to do but I just remembered it.”
For someone who has spent a career in music, Hart was quickly able to discern the situation.
“When he first lost consciousness I wasn’t sure what was going on but then he turned greenish grey and I knew he didn’t have long,” she said. “I called 9-1-1 and they said …
Read the rest of the story at CPR comes in handy at WashingtonCountyInsider.com
Monday’s council meeting gets underway at 6 p.m.
Photo courtesy Joan Williams