2 teachers awarded for saving teen in cardiac arrest with CPR -

Two high school teachers in the South Okanagan were honored by the British Columbia Emergency Health Services for their heroic performance in saving the life of a teenager who had suffered a cardiac arrest.

Steve Podmorow and Mike Russo were given a Vital Link Award for providing CPR or cardiopulmonary resuscitation on a student named Dilshaan Dhaliwal, 13 years old.

Saving a life

The student Dhaliwal collapsed after a sudden cardiac arrest in the gymnasium.

The two teachers Podmorow and Russo were properly trained in CPR by paramedics at British Columbia Emergency Health Services. Their training is through a program with the ACT or the Advanced Coronary treatment Foundation. The foundation also donated an AED or the automated external defibrillator which was used by the two teachers in rescuing the boy.

Vancouver first aid — It was not for the AED machine and the quick and fast actions of the two teachers in providing CPR and using the defibrillator, Dhaliwal would not be alive right now.

The Venables Theatre was full of hundreds of students for a special ceremony. Chief paramedic, John Warren presented the two teachers, Podmorow and Russo with their award. Podmorow stated in news that he does not consider himself as a hero. Furthermore, he wishes that anyone who will encounter this kind of situation, they would do the same thing as we did to the student.

During the ceremony the two teachers Podmorow and Russo was also grateful for the emergency personnel that also helped in the rescue. The emergency dispatcher Dionne Van Wiki met for the first time at the ceremony. Paramedics who rushed to help Dhaliwal were also given honors.

According to the two paramedics who helped, they were in the service for a couple of years; they have received plenty of emergency calls but not all those get their adrenaline pumping. But when they received a call to their computer-aided dispatch, my heart stopped, according to one of the paramedic.

Dhaliwal, was immediately brought to the hospital for further treatment and is expected to make a full recovery in the following days. The student was very grateful and thanks the two teachers while he was in the hospital. It was not for the AED machine and the quick and fast actions of the two teachers in providing CPR and using the defibrillator, Dhaliwal would not be alive right now.

In the eyes of their students, Podmorow and Russo are real-life heroes.

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