Neighbors Gather for Life-Saving Lesson

By April Koral

A few months ago Joanne DiLoreto was reading in the paper about a building superintendent who saved a baby’s life by administering CPR.

Something “clicked,” said DiLoreto, who lives with her husband, Ken Bagwell, at Broadway and Warren Street. “I thought, we need to train our superintendent. I suggested it at the next board meeting and they approved paying for a Red Cross rescue course.”

		She also posted a sign in the lobby, hoping to lure some fellow tenants to the course. So at 9 a.m. one Sunday last month, seven adults and two teenage boys gathered in the couple’s loft to learn how to save a life. Their instructor was Mohammed Mondol, a first-year medical student on spring break from Texas A&M
University, who has taught the course for two years. The “classroom” shifted between the bedroom, where the students sat on the bed or perched on furniture to view instructional videos, and the dining room, where they got down on the floor to practice new skills on life-size baby and adult mannequins, and on each other.

“Most people get really scared and nervous in emergency situations,” Mondol told his students, “but you have to control your fears.”

“Who wants to be the victims?” Mondol asked. After some nervous laughter, three volunteers lay face down on the living room floor, and three would-be rescuers knelt beside them.

“You’re walking in Central Park and you see someone on the ground,” Mondol said. “What do you do?” Tentatively, the rescuers tried to rouse the victims, then listened for breathing.

“Put your face closer,” Mondol reminded them. “You must be no more than an inch away from the victim.”

Per the instructions on the video, rescuer Mark Borow asked for help. “Call 911 and say we have three unconscious victims,” he barked to an imaginary bystander.

The CPR students practiced cradling their victims’ necks while rolling them over, and feeling for a neck pulse. (Never reach across the throat to feel the far side of a victim’s neck, Mondol warned; it will look like you’re choking the person.)

After a few rounds, the rescuers got more assertive in their roles.
“Don’t move on your own,” Bagwell reprimanded the building superintendent, Raymond Cauchi, who was lying beside him.

“Put your head down, I have to listen for your breathing,” Borow said to DiLoreto.

“What if you can’t hear well?” asked 13-year-old Rafe Lepre.

“Then you feel for breathing,” Mondol responded.

After a brief break for pizza, the class turned its efforts to rescuing children and choking or unconscious babies. “Poor babies, you really have to hit them hard,” said Nancy Yates as she pounded the chest of her plastic baby doll with her fingers.

DiLoreto had wanted to include a second day of first aid instruction, but thought it might be too much.

Indeed, by the end of the afternoonthe student rescuers were showing signs of fatigue. Only two more parts, Mondol said, trying to keep spirits from flagging. After the last technique was taught, he gave a written test (everyone passed) and handed out American Red Cross certification cards.

“It was exhausting,” said Borow. “But it was worth it. Imagine if everyone knew this? They should require it in high school,” he added. “It could make such a difference.”

To bring a Red Cross instructor to your building, call Group Training Line at 1-877-REDCROSS ext. 2024 or go to www.redcross.org. Program costs vary.