Student saves teacher with CPR
Published: September 16, 2005
History teacher David Chapman should give student Ashlee Anderson an “A” – at least in emergency services, if not history.
Ashlee is being hailed as a hero after she performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Mr. Chapman when he had a heart attack as he taught a history class at Bentonville High School.
“As he was falling, I was already out of my seat. I was next to him by the time he hit the floor,” she said.
Ashlee said she thought Mr. Chapman was kidding Aug. 31 when he told the advanced-placement U.S. History class he’d been ill, then asked the students to help him if he fell over. About halfway through the class period, he suddenly fell.
“He said, ‘I’m experiencing …’ then he just keeled over,” she said this week.
His heart had stopped, and Mr. Chapman broke a lectern as he fell to the floor.
Ashlee has had first aid training, including CPR certification, and was an athletics trainer at her previous high school in Missouri.
While she tried to assess Mr. Chapman’s condition, a teacher cleared the room of other students.
School nurses arrived, and one took over CPR while the other left to get the high school’s defibrillator.
Ashlee, remaining in the room, helped the rescuers mark time as they performed CPR and rescue breathing. Using the defibrillator, they had shocked Mr. Chapman three times by the time paramedics arrived.
This week, Mr. Chapman said he has been told he has a disorder that disrupts the electric charges in his heart. While he was in the hospital, doctors implanted a defibrillator that will shock his heart when it misfires.
Mr. Chapman, 40, said his previous hospital stay was because of an unrelated gastrointestinal problem. Shortly before his collapse, he thought his medicine was making him feel ill. About halfway through the class, he felt worse, then collapsed.
Mr. Chapman said he could return to the classroom as early as next week.
Ashlee said she hopes to enter the medical profession.
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