New first-aid equipment acquired from $10,000 United Way grant
By Jon Johnson
THATCHER – From the most horrific tragedies, sometimes is born the noblest of efforts.
The fifth annual Emergency Response Day was held at Thatcher Middle School on Thursday, with roughly 60 volunteers (including roughly 40 healthcare professionals) spending their day teaching students a wide swath of emergency procedures.
Julie Hancock would have been starting her senior year at Thatcher High School this year had she not suffered heart failure during track practice in March 2019 and succumbed to a genetic heart condition at age 11.
During the incident, as she was prone on the track, her teammates stood over her wanting to help but not knowing what to do in such a situation.
The following year a middle school basketball coach collapsed while running sprints in the gymnasium. This time, a group of basketball players who had been on that same track the year before and 8th-grade coach Luke Ochoa saved the life of coach Braunson Summers that day, through the use of an AED machine the school kept in the gym.
“This whole day came about because of that,” said Julie’s mother, Susan Hancock, who has organized the event for the past five years. “The idea is that these kids can go out in college and other communities and help other people when they need to and have the confidence to help.”
In the past, students would have to borrow equipment, but thanks to a $10,000 grant from the United Way of Graham and Greenlee Counties, this year Thatcher Middle School is stocked with CPR mannequins, AED machine trainers, extra batteries, extra pads, EpiPens (Epinephrine), and abdominal thrust vests to teach the Heimlich Maneuver. The grant was facilitated by Thatcher Middle School Dean of Students Leah Meehl, who said the training would not only have a positive effect on the community but was life-altering.
“(Safford Police Captain) Tyler Cluff I think said it best last year (when) he came to help with stop the bleed and he’s like, ‘there’s no way this isn’t saving somebody’s life’ and he’s right,” Meehl said. “Every year we’re training 300-plus just at our school. There’s no way out of the 300 that as they go out in the world they’re not going to need this training somewhere.”
Meehl said the training empowers the students and gives them the knowledge to be able to act in an emergency if necessary.
CPR instructor Heather Mack praised the new CPR mannequins as far superior to previous versions and said they engage the student’s muscle memory. She added that its integrated light system of green, yellow, or red indicating the usefulness of chest compressions gives the lesson a video-game feel that further engages the students.
“They’re so much better,” Mack said.
The program has grown every year and continues to add more features. This year, students learned several emergency procedures, including how to perform CPR, use an AED machine, tie a tourniquet and stop bleeding, how to use an EpiPen for allergic reactions and how to use Narcan nasal spray to reverse opioid overdoses, all-terrain vehicle safety with the Arizona Game & Fish Department, how to perform the Heimlich Maneuver, and more. The classes also toured a medical helicopter from Air Evac and were treated to a lunch of hamburgers grilled by Thatcher Superintendent Matt Peterson and Thatcher Officer Jason Larson, and served by a bevy of volunteer moms handling the fixings. The healthcare professionals and those who donated their time were in turn treated to catering from Kainoa’s Hawaiian Grill.
Hancock said that in the Thatcher School District students are trained in emergency response from seventh through twelfth grades to engrain that knowledge.
“The goal with that is that they really can help because it’s every year for six years they’re hearing this stuff,” Hancock said.
Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article identified Thatcher Middle School Dean of Students Leah Meehl as the TMS Assistant Principal. This has since been corrected.
