Nottinghamshire schoolboy, 15, saves collapsed stranger with CPR

A 15-year-old who wants to be a paramedic saved a stranger who collapsed in the street in Mansfield Woodhouse, Nottinghamshire, BBC News reported. It was two weeks after his practice dummies arrived.

Ethan, a Year 10 pupil at The Manor Academy, had done a one-off CPR course with East Midlands Ambulance Service the year before. He bought three resuscitation dummies, at £60 each, so he could run life-saving sessions for other young people. He has already taught them at local scout groups.

On 18 September, at about 2.30 in the afternoon, Ethan was walking home from a gardening job. On Ley Lane he saw a 75-year-old man slumped “half in the road and half on the pavement”.

The man was unresponsive and in cardiac arrest. A woman was on the phone to 999, but she did not know how to do chest compressions, so she let Ethan take over.

They moved the man to a flat surface. An off-duty carer from King’s Mill Hospital and a teacher from a nearby primary school joined them and took turns with the compressions.

Even though I’ve spent ages preparing for this moment, to put it into practice was completely different.Ethan

When paramedics arrived they found a shockable rhythm and used a defibrillator. In the East Midlands, one in 13 people survive a cardiac arrest outside hospital, according to Resuscitation Council UK.

The man is making a steady recovery and has asked not to be named. His daughter, Erica, said: “If it wasn’t for Ethan and other passing public, there would have been a very different outcome.”

She said the family would support Ethan on his way to becoming a paramedic.

Ethan said many young people do not learn CPR because they feel awkward about touching a stranger. He said people who step in are protected by the Social Action, Responsibility and Heroism Act 2015.

His head teacher, Robert Gladwin, said the school would now look at paying for more pupils to learn life-saving skills.