WESTMINSTER — Cameron Durand learned CPR during his three years as a lifeguard at Water World. But until his classmate Lindsay Hayden fell from her chair and began to convulse two days ago, he never had to use it.
Hayden, who is recovering at Children’s Hospital, may be alive today because Durand paid attention during his training, and because Standley Lake High School had a small yellow box called an Automatic External Defibrillator hanging on a wall nearby.
“I heard her stop breathing. I flipped her over and she was blue,” Durand, 17, said in recalling what happened Monday.
The lanky senior gave the girl mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, kick-starting some breaths. Her breathing stopped a second time.
Durand began CPR.
In the meantime, two classmates ran to Westminster police officer Dan Mayer’s office to tell him Hayden, 17, was unconscious.
The school resource officer grabbed the AED and ran to the classroom.
Mayer placed two patches attached by wires to the machine on her chest and delivered a shock. She didn’t respond.
The second shock brought her back, he said, at a press conference in the library of the school.
An emergency crew of Westminster firefighters arrived in moments and took Hayden to the hospital.
Everything worked the way it was supposed to and a life was saved, Mayer, 45, said.
But if Durand hadn’t known what to do and respond so quickly, the outcome could have been different. “He kept a level head and knew what to do,” Mayer said.
In a chain of coincidences, the machine that got her heart started was at the school thanks to a memorial fund in the name of Daniel Lunger, a friend of Hayden and Durand, who died of a heart abnormality in 2006.
Daniel’s father, Howard Lunger, 45, plans to use the fund to put the $2,500 machines in all Jefferson County schools soon.
“This was one of those bittersweet kinds of things. I am so excited that it saved her life. I’m not glad it got used,” he said.
Tom McGhee: 303-954-1671 or tmcghee@denverpost.com
