Junior Gonzalez
The York Dispatch
FAWN GROVE, Pa. — A Kennard-Dale High School student is alive today due to quick action by the school nurse last spring.
That’s according to a paramedic who arrived at the school more than 10 minutues after nurse June Stratmeyer began working on the boy when he went into cardiac arrest on May 23.
Stratmeyer is set to receive an honorary certificate and pin from the Southern York EMS on Aug. 21 for her decisive action that spring day.
The boy was walking down a hallway when he suddenly clutched his chest and fell flat on the ground, according to Southern York EMS paramedic Chris Biddle.
The student did not have a pulse for several minutes and a teacher immediately called Stratmeyer, as well as 911, Biddle said.
She used an automatic external defibrillator (AED) to try to revive him, but the device itself was unsuccessful, according to Biddle.
Stratmeyer, who Biddle said is an American Heart Association-certified CPR instructor, proceeded to perform CPR for nearly 10 minutes, periodically using the AED, until the student regained a pulse and began breathing again.
When Biddle and his EMS partner arrived, he initially thought the student had not lost his pulse, but a record on the AED confirmed that the student’s heart had indeed stopped.
“The only reason that kid is alive today is because of that nurse,” he said.
The student was admitted to an area hospital. Biddle said he is confident that Stratmeyer’s fast response time led to minimal, if not virtually no, neurological damage.
"(Stratmeyer) was practical in his survival,” Biddle said.
Copyright 2017 The York Dispatch