Longwood HS senior uses AED to revive man
Photo credit: Johnny Milano | Kayla Parmely, an 18-year-old
senior at Longwood High School, administered an electric shock, reviving
a grandfather who had collapsed at a school festival on Wednesday
evening, school authorities said. (May 31 2013)
An 18-year-old senior at Longwood High
School administered the electric shock that revived a grandfather who
had collapsed at a school festival on Wednesday evening, school
authorities said. Kayla Parmely, who is also a probationary firefighter, said she saw the commotion and raced across the Middle Island auditorium where a crowd had gathered around a man who had fallen to the floor.
"I heard someone scream to grab the AED," Parmely said, referring to the automated external defibrillator.
"I pushed my way through and I noticed someone doing CPR on him. And no one knew how to use" the AED, said Parmely, of Coram.
"So I hooked it up and shocked him . . . eventually, he started breathing on his own," Parmely said.
Myra Vaughn, a spokeswoman for the Longwood school district, confirmed that Parmely had shocked the grandfather of a fellow student back to life.
The patient, who did not wish to have his name revealed, was doing well Saturday, Parmely said.
"Everything's fine; he's breathing on his own," she said.
"She is responsible for saving this man's life," Lt. Christopher Welga of the Middle Island Fire Department, who trained Parmely, said in a statement provided by the school district.
"She immediately recognized a true emergency and she didn't freak. She did exactly what she needed to do," Welga said.
The fire department did not respond to requests for comment.
Parmely, along with some other rescuers, gave the man CPR until the EMTs arrived, about eight to 10 minutes later, she estimates.
"When the Yaphank EMTs arrived, they were just amazed at how she handled it. She was able to give them vitals and tell them what was going on," said her mother, Jo Ann Parmely.
"This is actually her third cardiac resuscitation; this is the first one she had to juggle on her own," she said.
Kayla Parmely knows the man's grandson from a physics class. "I was just amazed that I did that," Parmely said. "I didn't think, I just acted."
The Middle Island Fire Department on Friday evening gave Parmely a medal for her CPR save and a letter of commendation, her mother said.
The teenager is a triplet, with two brothers, Eric and Kevin. She and Eric joined the fire program two years ago.
When the man collapsed, Kayla Parmely was attending the school's Music and Art Festival to hear her boyfriend, a percussionist, perform.
She will be attending SUNY Oneonta this fall, where she plans to join the on-campus EMT unit and major in psychology.
