School Lesson Helps Students Save a Life

Paying attention in school made quite a difference for three students when they were faced with an unexpected emergency.

Fifth graders Emily Lux, Mariange Charles-Antonio and Sarah Salazar were having lunch in Livingston when a woman sitting next to them began having a seizure.
 
"We heard a shriek and it sounded like a child having a fit," Salazar, 10, told Patch. "I saw a lady slowly sliding down from her seat. She was trembling."

The girls quickly took note the woman was having a seizure and began to help the man who was with the woman.

"We told him to put something soft under her head so she won't damage her head. We told the man to put her on the ground so she won't hurt herself," Salazar said.

She said she and her friends had learned what to do after a presentation regarding seizures was made to the school last November by the Epilepsy Foundation.

Faced with an emergency, the girls kept their calm and were eager to help. "I wanted to help," Salazar said. "It was very sad and scary at the same time."

Salazar's mother, Jennie, said she was so proud of the girls for knowing exactly what to do.

"It was wonderful that the kids remembered everything, naming all the stuff they should be doing," Mrs. Salazar said.

Though the man appeared to be in control of the situation and told the girls it wasn't the first time the woman had had a seizure, Mrs. Salazar said,  "if it was the first time someone was having a seizure, they would have been able to tell them exactly what to do."