By Adam Smith
The News Courier
ATHENS, Ala. — Saturday, Jan. 21, was a seemingly normal day for Autumn Denyer, a junior at Athens High School.
She decided that afternoon to go visit her old workplace, Consign World, which hosts bluegrass musicians on the first and third Saturday of each month. Her day, however, was about to become anything but normal.
It was sometime after 1:30 p.m. that day that one of the musicians stood up to go to the restroom and then collapsed on the floor. Autumn remembers someone yelling for help and a group of people surrounding the man to offer aid.
Denyer’s former boss, Gary Stapler, suspected the man was having a heart attack because he had also had one. He and others began administering CPR to the man, whom Autumn said was beginning to lose color. The men trying to help were also getting tired.
“They were getting pretty worn out, so I just took it from there,” she said.
What made Autumn a perfectly viable candidate to administer CPR is that she had received training as a freshman in Missy Greenhaw’s Foundations of Health course. It’s the first course taken by students who are interested in the school’s health science pathway to a career in the medical field.
“I adjusted his head so he could breathe and gave him chest compressions,” Autumn said, adding the man’s color began to return when she took those steps. “He could barely breathe. … I’m really glad I took that class.”
Paramedics continued to administer CPR on the man after he was loaded into the ambulance, but Autumn said he was recovering in the hospital. She didn’t know his exact condition Monday, but said Stapler is keeping her and others who were there informed.
Greenhaw views Autumn’s actions as heroic and beamed at her accomplishment. Despite having worked as a nurse for 25 years, Greenhaw said she’s never had to administer CPR in public. She said Autumn did the right thing by staying calm and recalling what she learned in class.
“If you’re ever in this situation, your adrenaline is flowing when you’re doing those chest compressions,” Greenhaw said. “(The compressions) can make you really tired, but she felt confident in what she was doing.”
Cornerstone to a career
Athens City Schools and Limestone County Schools have both been proactive in offering students a chance to gain real-world experience through its college- and career-ready programs as well as dual enrollment programs. Greenhaw said Athens City Schools’ health program has grown significantly since it was first introduced nearly three years ago and now includes a second instructor.
Not only does the school offer the introductory Foundations of Health class, but it also offers a medical terminology course and an Emergency Medical Technician dual enrollment course. The school also provides students an opportunity to become a certified patient care technician if they take the required coursework and pass the national CPCT exam.
Senior-level students interested in becoming a CPCT are afforded the opportunity to get real-world experience in hospitals and nursing homes now. Greenhaw said offering medical courses to high schoolers may also help determine if it’s a career path they want to pursue.
“I had a girl who was going to be a dental hygienist but decided it wasn’t for her because she liked working in a hospital better,” she said. “I had another student who planned on being a nurse but decided health care wasn’t it. It’s good they find that out now before they go to college or become a pre-nursing major.”
As for Autumn, her experience of helping save a man’s life has already had an effect on her career path. She had wanted to be a nurse, but then she became interested in engineering.
Administering CPR on the ailing musician has instead pushed her back to the health field. When asked what she wanted to do with her life, she didn’t hesitate.
“I want to be a paramedic,” she said with a big smile.
Copyright 2017 The News Courier
All Rights Reserved