CPR training and quick action saves CIA student

Two campus safety officers and a registered nurse at The Culinary Institute of America (CIA) saved the life of an 18-year-old student on Dec. 1, 2008, by performing immediate cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and administering a shock from an on-campus automated external defibrillator.

At 7:34 a.m., as students were beginning their first classes after Thanksgiving break, a freshman from Missouri collapsed in a kitchen classroom. As the chef called the Safety Office to request assistance, a student ran to Health Services to summon a nurse. Within a minute, nurse Kelly O'Connor and safety officer Carl Wilson were on the scene. O'Connor initially found a pulse, but when it was lost, the two began performing CPR. Moments later, safety supervisor Lyle Burnett arrived with a defibrillator. After Burnett attached the shock pads, the machine advised that the student had a "shockable rhythm." Shortly after a shock was administered, the patient began breathing on his own, and his color returned.

This all took place before an advanced life support ambulance arrived on the scene with a paramedic. By 8:01, the student was on his way to St. Francis Hospital in Poughkeepsie, where he continued to recover. By Monday evening, his parents were at his side.