Thanks so much to ASHI instructor and safety director Chris Wulfeck for letting us know about his student hero Zack Russell.

Chris writes:

“Zack is a welder at Jet Machine and Manufacturing in Cincinnati, OH. On February 8, 2014, he was sitting down for dinner with his family at a local restaurant when he saw a 65-year-old women across the restaurant being attended to by other bystanders.

Zack rushed over to help and noticed the woman was turning blue with an airway obstruction. He quickly performed a few abdominal thrusts to dislodge the object, but with no success.

The women then became unresponsive and Zack cradled her to the floor.

After telling someone to call 911, Zack started CPR on the women by giving her 30 chest compressions. A bystander at her head thought he heard some air movement so Zack instinctually performed approximately 15 more compressions.

The piece of food became dislodged and the women started gasping for air. Zack and another bystander rolled the women on to her side to await paramedics. By the time they arrived, the women was talking to them and thanking Zack for saving her life.”

This courageous welder was retrained with an ASHI blended learning course in November, 2013. Instructor Wulfeck explains that, while Zack had been trained in CPR years ago, that blended learning course was the thing that made the difference for him:

“Zack told me a few days later at work that because of the CPR/first aid blended learning class we conducted in November, he had the confidence and skills to get involved in this situation…the blended learning format gave him a great update and provided him with the knowledge to help someone in need.”

For those unfamiliar with blended learning, it’s a combination of online content and in-person skills practice. A student does the online portion at his/her convenience and, when they have completed that portion, they do some practice and a skills assessment under the watchful eye of an authorized instructor.

For many employers, having a blended learning option works much better for their workers’ schedules than the typical time commitment of an all-classroom training experience. The online content is available from any computer at any time, so employees can complete their requirements when it works best for them.

As for Zack, Chris explained to him that “…unconscious airway obstruction success stories are rare and he should feel great for being a Good Samaritan that day.”

Indeed he should! Thank you to both Chris and Zack!

Thinking that blended learning might be right for your team? You can learn a little more about blended in some of our previous blog posts:

Blended Learning or Classroom Training – Are Both Equally Effective?

Taking the Mystery Out of Blended Learning—New HSI eBook now available!

And be sure to download the eBook mentioned in that second link for a quick how-to on presenting blended to your ASHI or MEDIC First Aid students.