Baltimore high school student Chelsea Elliott came home from school two weeks ago to find her grandfather, Frank, struggling to breathe. “It just felt like someone was sitting on me. I just couldn’t get nothing out,” he recalls. Chelsea’s adrenaline kicked in and she knew exactly what to do.
“At first I thought I was going to flip out and start crying, but I don’t know – it’s like something kicked in, and I was very proactive. I just flipped him over and started doing chest compressions,” she said. Chelsea continued to perform CPR while medical personnel were called. She kept going until they arrived and were able to take her grandfather to the hospital. Thankfully, Frank was able to go home after a week-long stay.
How did Chelsea know exactly what to do for her grandfather? An elective course at her high school. Her teachers are all incredibly proud of her and her ability to apply her learning in an especially difficult and scary situation. Chelsea and her grandfather hope that one day CPR will become a mandatory part of the curriculum at all Baltimore high school – it’s an incredibly useful skill that could save someone’s life one day.
