Avon Lake High School begins annual CPR classes
Since the 2017-18 school year, the state of Ohio has mandated CPR training in all high schools as part of curriculum.

Avon Lake High School health teacher Pete Vein has decided to go one step above and beyond that curriculum.

Vein explained that over the course of a week, students in his classes will become cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and automated external defibrillator (AED) certified, with help from instructors from University Hospitals' EMS Training and Disaster Preparedness Institute (EMSI).

Under the tutelage of paramedic and head instructor Ken Hehnan, Vein said that all Avon Lake High students will become completely certified during a two and a half hour class, spread over three days.

According to Vein, the national attention around learning CPR came from the incident with Buffalo Bills safety Damar Hamlin, as well as local incidents in the Avon Lake area.

"With recent events nationally, that brought attention (to CPR)," he said. "But then, we've had two recent incidents at Avon Lake functions where we've needed CPR and AEDs, and they both were successful revivals."

According to Vein, the school always provided CPR education in health classes.

After the University Hospitals instructors became available, he wanted to provide students with certification.

"Our kids are pretty high achievers, in general," Vein said. "We want to make sure that we give them these tools that are going to kind of be useful as they go through life. 100%, functional education."

By using the tempo of the 1977 Bee Gees hit, "Stayin Alive," the students were able to find a consistent beat for the CPR dummies.

According to the American Heart Association, any song between 100 to 120 beats per minute is a good indication for chest compressions.

In addition to Vein, Hehnan and fellow instructors, Avon Lake students took to the practice dummies well.

Sophomore Reece Polomsky said that he already felt confident in his CPR and AED abilities, even though his first ever exposure to it was on March 3.

"It's not bad," Reece, 15, said. "I feel like it would be different on a person, but I feel like it'll be helpful.

"I definitely feel a lot better doing this, now that I got to actually try to use an AED."

Reece said UH instructors really put him at ease for CPR situations.

According to paramedic and instructor Hehnan, the aim for the state of Ohio is to prepare young people for the over 300,000 cardiac events which take place each and every year.

"The state of Ohio requires all high school students now, to have some type of basic CPR to graduate," Hehnan said. "The school here has allowed us time to give them full certification, far beyond the state minimum requirements."

Hehnan said that the UH team does "all kinds of CPR" when it comes to training, and they want to be able to go to more schools in the future.

Getting the process ingrained at a young age can be important, he said.

"We just have to get their attention quickly, so we remind them that most of these things happen at home," Hehnan said. "This could be a family member involved.

"If you don't know what to do, they may not survive."