When a 5th grader choked in class, classmates laughed — but the teacher knew she had to act fast
'I just did what I would want someone to do for my own child...'
Alexis Simon, an Ohio teacher at Frank Jacinto Elementary School, has been hailed a 'hero' after she saved one of her students who began choking during class, Cleaveland.com reported on December 22. Xavion, a fifth-grade student, was snacking on an Orange on December 17, Wednesday, when he suddenly began coughing. While his classmates thought he was joking, his teacher realized that it was something serious and rushed to his desk.
Simon, the teacher, had acquired first-aid training as a coach, so she was immediately alarmed when she saw Xavion coughing while grabbing his throat. She knew the Heimlich maneuver (abdominal thrusts), a first-aid procedure to help prevent people from choking. So, Simon immediately wrapped her arms around Xavion and performed the method until the piece of orange that he choked on dislodged. It was way more challenging than she initially thought because, firstly, it took longer than expected, and also, it was her first time performing the maneuver on a child instead of an adult.
The Heimlich maneuver is performed when a person can’t breathe because of a foreign object blocking their throat or windpipe. The method is also safe for toddlers and children, according to my.clevelandclinic.org. However, it is always recommended that if the child is less than 5 years old or weighs less than 45 pounds, the method should be slightly altered. Simon received the district’s Catch Being Great recognition on Friday. Moreover, Principal Christine Miller said that the decision to honor the teacher came easily as they wanted to recognize her act of saving her student's life. Meanwhile, for Xavion, his teacher is his "superhero," he confessed to Lorain City Schools. However, Simon didn't think she was doing anything extraordinary, and that it was something she would have done for anyone.
"I just did what I would want someone to do for my own child. He was choking, and I needed to save him," she said. The teacher and Xavion, her student, both shared their experience on Lorain City Schools’ Facebook page, which now stands deleted. Simon could help her student only because she had prior experience in handling medical emergencies, but imagine what could have happened if she hadn't had any training. The incident not only highlights her quick thinking but also emphasizes the importance of teachers attaining first-aid or basic training to handle medical emergencies during school hours. However, the reality is shockingly different.
A study, "Emergencies in the School Setting: Are Public School Teachers Adequately Trained to Respond?" across U.S. public school teachers revealed that one-third of the respondents had no training in first aid. In fact, 40% of the teachers had never learned to perform CPR. The statistics are especially scary because the survey found that 18% of teachers have responded to over 20 injured or sick students in a year, and 17% said they had experienced at least one life-threatening emergency in their career.
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