Saved a Life: Mother saves son days after learning CPR online

CPR training came just in time for a mother and her child. Tammy Schneider, a Kent District Library employee for 14 years, was told that the library was putting together an online CPR and First Aid training for all staff through a company called ProTrainings. “Personally, I thought it was a great idea,” said Schneider. “I think that anytime you can learn something new and can potentially help someone, that’s great.” She had previously learned very basic concepts in CPR, but had never done any hands-on training.

Schneider is a mother of two sons, ages 8 and 11. They are involved in soccer, tae kwon do, and even snowboarding and skiing in the winter months. “We’re just kind of a normal family,” said Schneider. However, what happened in her kitchen during dinner time was anything but normal.

She had been trained on a Friday, and the night the incident happened was the very next Tuesday. “My first thought was this can’t really be happening.”

However, Schneider didn’t panic. She said she felt a calm settle over her and she told her husband to call 911.”That’s the first thing we did,” said Schneider with a smile, “just like in the video.” By the time the operator answered, her son was basically fine, so no emergency medical personnel were needed, thankfully.

Schneider went through the online training, but when the incident happened with her son, she hadn’t even completed the hands-on part of the training. “I didn’t know if what I was going to do was going to help.” She had however, meticulously gone through every training video available.

After the whole incident was over, Schneider had a minute to reflect on what had just happened. “I just kept thinking, what if, what if, what if? My son oddly enough just got back up to the table and began eating for a few minutes, but then it hit him.”

KDL took a pretty big initiave in training their entire staff in CPR and First Aid. “I’m happy to work for an employer that takes those things into consideration; that was a lot of staff time, it was a lot of money, but they were willing to do it anyway. I think that speaks a lot for KDL.”

Other companies can take this same initiative. KDL recognized the importance of CPR training, and wound up empowering a mother to save her son from a potentially fatal accident.

“One kid got saved, I think that’s worthwhile.”