ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. — Channel 9 anchor Nancy Alvarez found out Florida lags behind the rest of the country when it comes to CPR training, and a local group plans to fix that.
Supporters of the plan want to make it a requirement that high school students learn CPR before they graduate. The class, which would take 30 minutes, comes with a kit.
Jemma Oni, 12, went into cardiac arrest two weeks ago during a performance at her school in Melbourne.
Her mother, Lola Oni, sprang from the audience and began CPR.
“I gave her two good rounds of CPR, compressions, breaths,” said Lola Oni.
Paramedics took Jemma to Nemours Children’s Hospital, where Dr. Gul Dadlani cared for her. It turns out that Jemma had an undetected heart condition, and her mother's quick action made a difference.
“The fact the mom was able to perform CPR saved her life,” said Dadlani.
Dadlani also works with the American Heart Association's local chapter, which wants to ensure that more cases have the same outcome as Jemma's.
Twenty-nine states have passed laws requiring CPR in schools, but Florida has not.
Florida lawmakers have cited costs and a reluctance to put more mandates on schools.
The local American Heart Association chapter is taking matters into its own hands.
With the addition of 12 kits this year, every high school in Orange County is equipped with three CPR training kits paid for by the Heart Association.
The next step is convincing leaders on a district level to make the training a requirement.
Dadlani said seeing Jemma smiling with her mother is proof that it could be the most important lesson that a student gets.
“What we want is for anyone in our community, no matter where they are, if they see someone drop, that they can respond as soon as possible,” Dadlani said.
The American Heart Association's local chapter said it is starting with Orange County, but plans to expand to other counties across Central Florida.
Cox Media Group
