Photo Kent Porter, Press Democrat, 2014
According to an Press Democrat Article “Forestville teen saves dad’s life“ and EMS1’s based on the same Randi Rossman Press story “Calif. teen’s CPR saves father, impresses responders“, Lewis Griffith, a 13-year old from Forestville, learned how to save his father’s life in a P.E. class at Forestville Academy. This education was part of a countywide effort by a coalition of emergency responders and health agencies called Save Lives Sonoma. They target and teach seventh-graders hands-on CPR. According to the article his father slumped unconscious and not breathing on the kitchen floor, and Lewis announced to his startled mother he knew what to do. Firefighters arrived on the scene with the teen working on his father on his own.
The article provides background from #Petaluma’s Fire Battalion Chief Jeff Schach who adds “The reason we picked seventh-graders is they’re smart enough to learn it and teach it to the rest of their family and friends and they’re not too cool for it yet,” Schach, who coordinates Petaluma Fire Department’s efforts with Save Lives Sonoma, said about 2,000 people in the south county have been taught, including hundreds of middle-schoolers. Hundreds more area students are slated to get the training in the next several months. “We’re already seeing results,” Schach said, noting five people have been saved by someone stepping up to do the chest compressions in the past two years. “There’s been a drastic increase in the amount of bystanders doing (hands-only) CPR.”
Here is a video from the Save Lives Sonoma YouTube page released about 4 months ago.