N.S. lawmakers hear how a Dartmouth teacher used CPR training to save young student (CBC News)

Jean Laroche · CBC News · Posted: Jun 01, 2022 2:53 PM AT | Last Updated: June 1

When Grade 2 student Sofia Gouthro collapsed during gym class in December 2020, a school employee carried her to the office at Mount Edward Elementary School in Dartmouth, N.S.

Vice-principal and Grade 5 teacher Rebecca Stickings knew exactly what to do. The CPR training she first learned as a teenage camp counsellor in Madawaska, Maine, kicked in.

"You just go into autopilot with training and you remember the stuff that's necessary," said Sticking who, with the help of a 911 medical communications officer giving directions, kept Gouthro's blood flowing from her no-longer-beating heart until paramedics arrived.

"They did use a portable AED [automated external defibrillator] that they had on site at that time to revive her," recounted Sticking.

"When she left the school she was breathing and she had a pulse," she said. "We were very, very happy about that."