Preparing for an emergency

Military museum, fire taxes approved by Terrebonne voters
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Military museum, fire taxes approved by Terrebonne voters
November 25, 2015
Boil water advisory for North Lafourche
November 30, 2015

Freshmen and sophomores at South Terrebonne High School are now armed with a vital skill that they can take with them after graduation – the ability to potentially save a life.


On Nov. 19, the American Heart Association, in conjunction with the Professional Fire Fighters Association of Louisiana, presented the Bourg-based school with hands-only CPR kits that students used to learn the skill. The kits include head-to-torso manikins that provide realistic simulations when performing CPR steps. As of the 2014-2015 school year, students across the state are now required to learn CPR in order to graduate, a requirement implemented through the Burke Cobb Act.

“He had a heart problem, unknown to him, and he succumbed to that at school,” Professional Fire Fighters Association of Louisiana President Chad Major said of the 14-year-old the act is named in honor of. Cobb suffered a cardiac arrest while playing basketball in 2012.

Louisiana and 20 other states currently require school-based CPR training prior to high school graduation, a way the American Heart Association says is the most effective in reaching large groups of people. According to the association, of the nearly 430,000 Americans who experience a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital each year, just 40 percent get CPR from a bystander and only 10 percent survive. Bystander CPR can double or triple survival rates from a cardiac arrest.


“When the Burke Cobb Act was passed in 2014, the American Heart Association immediately sent out advocacy letters to all the school districts across Louisiana just kind of informing and reiterating that this is a tool that is going to be taught to all of the students across the state,” Coretta LaGarde, community health and stroke director for the American Heart Association’s Greater Southeast affiliate, said. “With that, we’ve been finding organizations such as the Louisiana Fire Fighters Association, to fund kits across the state. So far, in many of the parishes, we know that that is being implemented and we are excited to have this training of the next generation.”

In just over a year, the Professional Fire Fighters Association of Louisiana has donated $20,000 to the American Heart Association for the purchase of CPR kits, just one in a number of contributions the association receives to ensure every high school student is outfitted with proper CPR skills. LeGarde said schools are typically alotted about $1,000 each, providing them with a handful of kits that can be used for up to five years.

“At the time [the act] passed, the legislation didn’t put any money behind it,” Major, who rallied behind the legislation after witnessing the drowning of a toddler early on in his 27-year career as a firefighter, said. “You can’t teach them without having the proper equipment and we are going to continue to do what we can do to make sure that happens.”


During last week’s presentation, Chief Dwayne Stevens, a nationally registered paramedic and instructor for the Baton Rouge Fire Department, also conducted a demonstration for the students, walking them step-by-step through the CPR process, a three-fold skill of chest compressions, opening the airway and providing rescue breathes. Students utilized the presented kits to perform each step with supervision.

Andi Kelley, one the school’s physical education teachers, said she is excited the students were able to learn CPR skills, especially from those with first-hand experience in performing the steps.

“I’m really happy to see them get this opportunity,” she explained. “It’s something very, very good for them to know.”


“It’s important for them,” Stevens added. “The older you get, you look at life different. Kids being at a young age, they don’t look at life like you or I do because they probably haven’t experienced death or things like that. For them to come in and learn it, it’s something that’s not going to change. It is today what it will be next year and the year after and the year after. If they learn it and they get out there and if somebody goes down, they have the skills to be able to help them. It’s important to start off young and take it with you as an adult.” •

CPR TrainingMELISSA DUET | THE TIMES