This CPR instructor’s students proved that he’s really good at his job, albeit in probably a scarier way than he might’ve hoped.
According to the CBC, 72-year-old Karl Arps was in the middle of teaching a CPR training course at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, when he went into cardiac arrest.
While the students first thought Arps might be testing or joking with them, they soon realized the severity of the situation and began applying what they’d learned.
“We all had our tasks, and we all knew what to do,” says student Logan Lehrer. “There was not a student out there that was fumbling.”
Paramedics soon arrived on the scene and took Arps to the hospital, where he successfully underwent triple-bypass surgery.
“The early recognition that Karl was in cardiac arrest, along with the immediate actions taken by FVTC students and staff, directly contributed to Mr. Arps’s positive outcome,” says Nick Romenesko, executive director of Gold Cross Ambulance.
“From what I was told, they did everything like we told them to do in CPR class,” Arps says. “Thank you does not seem enough. They saved my life, period.”