October 2020 | Vol. 20 Iss. 10
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NINTH GRADER SAVES FRIEND’S LIFE WITH SKILLS LEARNED IN CLASS By Jet Burnham | j.burnham@mycityjournals.com
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hen Jackson Johnson started choking on his lunch in the cafeteria at West Jordan Middle School, his friends thought he was kidding around. “Then he turned around and his face was kind of bluish and he put his hands around his neck and I was like, ‘oh, shoot, this is real,’” said ninth-grader Hunter Olsen, who jumped up and began doing the Heimlich Maneuver on Jackson. After six thrusts, the food was dislodged and Jackson could breathe. Full of adrenaline, Hunter pumped his fist in the air and shouted “Ms Howa!” “I yelled my eighth grade health teacher’s name,” Hunter said. “It was just in the moment and she was the one that taught it to me. If she didn’t teach me how to do it, I wouldn’t have done it.” Hunter took Kathy Howa’s health class last spring, where he learned first-aid, CPR and the Heimlich Maneuver just before school transitioned to distance learning. “You hope that those children are actually listening to you,” Howa said. “And when something like this happens, and you find out that they did— there is no greater reward than somebody that’s actually saving somebody else’s life.” Hunter said the hands-on practice in health class gave him the confidence to use the technique in a real situation. In Howa’s class, students practice live-saving techniques on inflated upper body dummies called Resusci-Annies. “They actually have to pass off the right hand positions and so forth on the dummies in front of me,” Howa said. “It’s Jackson Johnson, Superintendent Anthony Godfrey and Hunter Olsen look at footage from a school security camera that recorded Hunter saving not real life but they get a good simulation of how the air goes Jackson’s life. (Photo courtesy of Jordan School District) in and out. If they’re putting Continued page 24
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