Teen Saves Brother Thanks To CPR Training In Md. Schools
BALTIMORE (WJZ)-- You'd never know the value of the red luggage being rolled into Mergenthaler Vocational High School unless you talk to someone who knows the story about the Jaydin family.
Joshua Jaydin, just 5, had his heart stop while at his home in southern Maryland.
His mom, a trained healthcare worker, says she "froze." Luckily his teenage brother, Keymar, had just completed the new mandatory CPR training at his high school.
He told his mom, "I got this." He did chest compressions on Joshua until the paramedics arrived. A red bag that was used is the CPR training kit used by high schools across the state to train every graduating senior how to perform compression-only CPR.
Researchers realized the old way of doing CPR with mouth-to-mouth breathing just wasn't happening because people were afraid of mouth-to-mouth contact. The human body contains enough oxygen to keep the brain alive, if it only could continue to circulate.
Now, people are being trained to only perform chest compressions. The Maryland chapter of the American Heart Association says the survival rate for compression-only CPR is more than 90 percent.
On Tuesday, a health class of 10 Mervo students listened to Dr. Maniu Kalin, a cardiologist from Lifebridge Health.
Lifebridge has committed to providing 100 CPR kits to schools that are unable to afford them.
Later in the class, Heart Association Technician Laura May demonstrated how to do CPR on a blow up dummy, and had the kids try.
It's doubtful any of the students were aware that the $1,000 training kits have a value that cannot be measured in dollars. Just ask Joshua, now a healthy grade schooler in southern Maryland.
Follow @WJZ on Twitter and like WJZ-TV | CBS Baltimore on Facebook
