Top photo: Madison Koehler, a student in Donovan Catholic High School, Toms River, tries out some of the techniques she’s learned. Here she uses the CPR mannequin to place the pads on it from the Aviv AED. Photo courtesy of Robert DeStefano
By Elizabeth Zimak | Correspondent
When Robert DeStefano began teaching an American Red Cross certification class at Donovan Catholic High School, Toms River, three years ago, he had one goal in mind.
“I wanted to teach these young people how to respond to an emergency and potentially save someone’s life,” he said.
Each semester, DeStefano, who also serves as the school’s Athletic Trainer, instructs 16 Donovan Catholic juniors and seniors in how to perform First Aid and CPR on adults, children, and infants. They are also instructed on how to apply an AED (automatic external defibrillator) to an individual in the event of a cardiac arrest. At the conclusion of the course, the students that pass receive their American Red Cross certification in all three areas.
“An emergency can happen anywhere – home, school, work, even a sporting event,” DeStefano said. “Certification gives students the practical skills and the confidence needed to respond to those emergencies.”
Two Donovan Catholic alumni have already applied the lifesaving techniques that they learned in DeStefano’s class to real-life situations.
Ben Huff successfully performed CPR on his special needs sister one summer afternoon, after she suddenly began having breathing difficulties. Similarly, Dominick Ciniglio was taking his lunch break at a pizza restaurant when he encountered an individual who was choking. Recalling what he had been taught by DeStefano, Ciniglio immediately performed the Heimlich maneuver on the gentleman. Thanks to the efforts of these former students, the victims in each situation survived.
These types of circumstances are exactly why Brody Dapkins, a Donovan Catholic senior, chose to take DeStefano’s class this year.
“You don’t want to be in a situation where someone needs help, and you can’t assist them,” he said, adding that he would now feel “comfortable” in applying the techniques learned in class to emergency scenarios.
Kendyl Stein, a Donovan Catholic junior, agreed.
“My ARC training will help to make me more aware and prepared in emergencies,” she said. “Whether I’m at home, school, or out in public, I’ll know how to react instead of panicking.”
Senior Madison Koehler is certain that the skills she learned in DeStefano’s class will help her to “solve real-world problems” in the future.
“I work specifically with kids, and I want to be able to handle any emergency situation that may arise,” she said.
According to Koehler, in addition to research and instruction, the students were given opportunities to practice the learned procedures on mannequins.
Over the course of the semester, the students became familiar with a variety of different resources, including AED devices. Nearly twenty of these units were recently installed throughout the Donovan Catholic campus.
Stein expressed that having access to the AED devices, as well as other resources, has helped her enormously with the certification process.
“The program has really been worth it,” she said. “It’s not just about getting certified – it’s about being able to help people, which matters the most.”