To everyone who fell asleep during 9th grade Health class, the joke’s on you – you missed your chance to be a hero. 15-year-old AV freshman Ajay Reyes (‘24) was wide awake that day, and as a result, learned the CPR techniques needed to save a man’s life. 

Reyes (‘24) was going on a run near his neighborhood when he passed by Tawny Park.  He noticed a man lying on the ground, surrounded by a group of distressed people. 

“Other people were freaking out, and other people didn’t know what to do so I went over there and I helped,” said Reyes (‘24). 

Reyes (‘24) recalled techniques from the brief CPR lesson in his first-semester Health class (using the heel of your palm to pump the person’s chest to the beat of ‘Staying Alive’) and put them to work. 

“I knew what to do because of the Health class I took first semester where we learned a little bit about chest compressions, so I knew I should probably do that. So I did. And it worked – I think,” said Reyes (‘24). He doesn’t know exactly how effective his CPR was since the man was a stranger, preventing him from checking up on him. 

Despite the anxiety of the whole situation, Reyes naturally focused on the task at hand, and subconsciously waited until after the man was up and moving to let himself consider what had been at stake. 

“In the moment I was really focused ‘cause I had adrenaline… After I was kinda, like, freaking out,” remembered Reyes (‘24) with a chuckle. 

Ajay’s experience goes to show that CPR and first-aid lessons are an important part of our school curriculum, and should remain a subject that we all do our best to remember. 

“I think it’s important that Amador keeps teaching that first-aid/CPR stuff because it definitely seems like you’d never have to use it–’cause that’s what I thought when I was taking that course in health…you never know when you’re going to have to use that stuff ‘cause it could come up any day…I think that it’s important that that course keeps being offered so more people can learn about it so they know what to do in that situation,” said Amador Don-turned-hero Ajay Reyes (‘24).