These Little Girls Just Might Save Your Life

They hope you'll never need them to do it. But if you ever start choking or suddenly stop breathing these Beaumont Elementary School fourth graders now know the basics that could save your life.

Members of the Girl Scout Troop 434 which is made up mostly of fourth graders from Beaumont Elementary School learned basic CPR along with a class full of adults ranging from 18-senior citizens Tuesday night at The Berwyn Fire Company.

All together 35 people learned the basics of Cardio-Pulmonary Resuscitation CPR and how to use a portable defibrillator and how to save a choking victim.  Instructor Steve Craig's hour-long class taught the students how to determine if someone is in life-threatening trouble, how to administer chest-compression CPR (the most basic CPR guidelines no longer call for performing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation), how to use a portable defibrillator to shock someone's heart back into the proper rhythm during a cardia episode and how to properly save a choking victim.

Craig is an Berwyn EMT and Firefighter as well as one of the lead instructors for his family's business, EMS Educational Services which teaches basic life support classes to business and community groups all over the region.

Participants in the $15 class went home with T-shirts and-far more important- the basic training that could help them save a life in the critical minutes between the time someone has a heart attack or start choking and the time first responders can arrive.