Taking practice to heart: Trinity High School coaches sharpen life-saving skills with CPR training

Taking practice to heart: Trinity High School coaches sharpen life-saving skills with CPR training
Rapid tapping disrupted the quiet calm in the Trinity High School cafeteria Thursday evening, followed by a series of shouts, then rhythmic clicking as tension rose among the 16 Shamrock coaches.

The coaches, occupying paid and volunteer positions, worked to save the eight CPR Training Manikins laid out on the cold cafeteria floor. After tapping and shouting to make sure the figures were unresponsive, they began chest compressions demonstrated by instructor Bill Odoms moments before. One by one, the green lights on the Manekins illuminated.

They were saved.

After about 70 minutes of instruction and demonstration, pending supplemental reading, the coaches earned their school-mandated two-year CPR certification, sharpening their life-saving tools with the fall sports season on deck.

“I think the main thing I took away from it was that any regular person can make an impact at any given time, and taking the time to get this specialized training makes a world of difference,” said Paris Palmer, a volunteer football coach with the Shamrocks. “We’re all a few seconds away from a random health issue happening. It’s important to take the time to be a Good Samaritan when you can.”

Palmer, a former Penn State offensive tackle, has been bombarded with statistics throughout his athletic life. Thursday, he and the rest of the Trinity coaching staff absorbed the harrowing statistics.

- Sudden cardiac arrest is the No. 1 killer of student-athletes in the United States

- One in 25 schools will have a cardiac arrest on campus

- One thousand cardiac arrests happen in the United States each day

- The survival rate is less than 10%

“This can happen to any one of you at any time, anywhere,” said Julie Walker, who presented the statistics to the Trinity staff through the Peyton Walker Foundation, an organization she founded in memory of her daughter, a 2012 Trinity graduate who died after suffering sudden cardiac arrest while studying at King’s College in 2013.

Julie Walker’s presentation was accompanied by a video of Damar Hamlin of the Buffalo Bills and Christian Eriksen of Denmark’s men’s national soccer team, who suffered cardiac arrests on the field.

Trinity has maintained a relationship with the Peyton Walker Foundation since its creation. The high-profile cases of Hamlin and Eriksen have amplified the foundation’s message within the athletic community.

“It really hits it home,” said Alanna Stuart, Trinity’s athletic director who taught Peyton Walker in class, “the importance that we are the first line of defense, and we care greatly about our student athletes. It’s 100% our job to make sure that their safety is most important.”

Part of the presentation included a section on emergency planning. Could a coach give an address for a specific venue? Does each member of the staff have a specific role in an emergency? Does everyone know the location of the nearest AED, an automatic external defibrillator?

“I think one of the main things that stood out to me was that cardiac arrests happen more at practice than at games,” said Courtney Furlow, the Shamrocks’ varsity tennis coach, “and there are typically trainers at games but not always at practices. So it’s just making sure that when you’re at a practice, you have a game plan.”

Furlow was one of the 16 coaches who received training from Odoms, a Peyton Walker Foundation representative and an instructor for 30 years. Odoms demonstrated the steps for performing CPR as well as applying and using an AED that shocks the heart when the heart beats in an irregular rhythm.

“If you’re not practicing every two years, you’re not developing that muscle memory,” Odoms said. “You’re not keeping up with the technology that’s happening.”

Odoms, planning to retire from the Peyton Walker Foundation this month, said the survival rate of cardiac arrest hasn’t changed since he began instructing in 1994, but the results of the training have fueled his passion throughout his career.

“What keeps me so passionate is every time I get that phone call – ‘Hey, thanks for that training you gave us. I just used it to save my daughter’s life’ – you can’t put money on that.”

Trinity High School has never had a person suffer cardiac arrest on campus. Thursday’s presentation and training session helped the school’s coaches sharpen life-saving tools with the same level of preparation that they demand from their student-athletes.

“Hopefully I’ll never have to use it,” Palmer said, “but I’m grateful knowing that I have this.”