(Mirror Daily, United States) – A teenage girl survived a heart attack thanks to AED training. The girl was saved by her teacher, Julie Sirmans, in October last year. If it weren’t for the training that the teacher received, the girl would have probably died, seen as the ambulance arrived after eleven minutes after the phone call was made.

Claire Crawford, 17 years old student at the Christian Academy of Loganville, was in the middle of a volleyball match when she suffered a heart attack and fell to the floor. All of the people that were present in the gym at that time panicked when they realized that Claire was no longer breathing.

But Julie Sirmans, a teacher at the Loganville Academy did not lose her wits, and reacted promptly and saved the girl’s life. Being a member of the faculty, Sirmans participated in a program named SAVE. All of the members of the SAVE project were trained how to use an AED (automated external defibrillator) and how to apply basic resuscitation maneuvers.

The sixteen school employees that were a part of the SAVE project were obligated to attend at least three drills per year, so as to be prepared in the case of a real medical emergency. The location of the drills changed regularly.

According to Sirmans, all of the training that she had during her seven years membership in the SAVE project were meant to prepare her for what was about to happen on the 13^th of October 2015.

At around 6 PM one of the school’s volleyball team members, Claire Crawford served the ball during the match and then moved back into the setter position. But the game didn’t carry on because the girl started grabbing her chest and collapsed on the gym’s floor.

Claire’s parents reached her first, followed by the athletic teacher, Mallory McQuaig and a teammate’s mother, Telessa Kendell. The two started to check her vitals and they realized that the girl did not faint but was practically dead since she presented no heartbeat, pulse, color or signs of breathing.

Somebody did call 911, but Sirman wasn’t planning on waiting for the ambulance. She put all of her previous training to use and resuscitated Claire. In just above four minutes, the girl had a heartbeat and was breathing on her own again.

When the ambulance finally arrived at the scene Claire had already asked the amazed audience is she had passed out.

It’s not by chance that a teenage girl survived a heart attack thanks to AED. More teachers should be learned to use the emergency life-saving device. Because in cases like Claire’s a few minutes can make the difference between life and death.

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