The Daily Standard
Story Archive
CELINA - A Tri Star Career Compact med prep program student is being hailed as a hero after she successfully performed the Heimlich maneuver on an Elida High School student who was choking during the St. Marys vs. Elida high school football game at Elida on Oct. 23.
St. Marys Memorial High School senior Alaina Ruvoldt's "quick thinking, courage and willingness to act in a critical moment" are credited with saving a life, according to a news release from St. Marys Memorial High School.
For her heroic actions, Ruvoldt, the daughter of Aaron and Becky Ruvoldt, was presented the Community Hero Award by the St. Marys Fire Department and the City of St. Marys.
"This is the second time they gave that out," Ruvoldt said of the award. "I was so grateful."
Tri Star Career Compact med prep program senior Alaina Ruvoldt of St. Marys, right, demonstrates the Heimlich maneuver on fellow med prep student Lauren Ayers of Coldwater. Ruvoldt saved the life of an Elida High School student by performing the Heimlich maneuver on her.
After halftime of the football game, Ruvoldt said she went to the concession stand to get something to eat. On her way back to the bleachers, she noticed a girl choking not far from the concession stand.
"She was choking on food. We know it was food now. I talked to her dad," Ruvoldt told The Daily Standard. "I just stopped because something in me is like, 'OK, I'm just going to make sure she's OK.' And it (the girl's coughing) got progressively worse, and then once she stopped coughing, I gave her the Heimlich."
Ruvoldt said she could definitely tell the student was choking, pointing to a few telltale signs.
"She was kind of like leaned over, like trying to get her air," Ruvoldt said. "She was bent over. Her hands were kind of like by her face. She (looked) like she was going to throw up."
Ruvoldt said she jumped into action and performed the Heimlich maneuver, which she learned in med prep, two or three times on the student.
"And then she started coughing again, and by that time … the medics were standing over there and they came running over," she recalled. "At that time, I was like, 'The medics are here, I'm going to put the ball in your court,' and I literally went back to my seat."
From the student's father, Ruvoldt later learned that the girl was airlifted to Dayton Children's Hospital.
"But she is OK," Ruvoldt said. "I think … they sent her there, I think mostly because (that's protocol for) what happened."
The girl's father reached out to St. Marys Memorial High School to talk to the student who had saved his daughter's life, Ruvoldt said, noting she was happy to take the call from the effusively thankful man.
"Without Tri Star and being in med prep, I don't think that I would have just automatically jumped right in," she said. "I think that Tri Star has helped me to not be scared. I just know that I'm trained. I put hours in, time in the classroom, outside of the classroom and it really did count toward the future."
One of Ruvoldt's med prep instructors, Annette Albers, lavished praise on Ruvoldt.
"I think it's awesome. I think for a senior in high school, just to kind of jump into action and recognize that there's a need is pretty amazing," Albers said. "And I think it's great that she learned that through our program, and she was able to take what she's learned and apply it to real life. I think it just says a lot about her and about our program, too, about how training is important, and if you do the training up front, then in a real life situation, it is much easier to react and to perform the necessary tasks at hand."
Albers, who is in her ninth year of teaching at Tri Star, said she can only remember two times when a med prep student administered the Heimlich maneuver, CPR or first aid for heavy bleeding.
"I've only known of one other student who has had to do CPR and that was (for) a family member and she was at like a family party," she said. "We did have an incident here at school where there was an accident, and there was definitely some heavy bleeding. There was a group of students that kind of helped in that situation."
Med prep is a two-year college prep program at Tri Star in which students gain knowledge and experience in the medical profession through hands-on classroom work and general observation at area health care facilities during both the junior and senior years.
"Our students have to do all of their skills three times before they even get their finals, and for CPR and first aid, those are really, really driven home," Albers said. "We spend about a week or longer, at least on the CPR end of things. But the first aid is probably a couple weeks long. So we do reiterate it, and we have them practice and we have them practice some more so that it becomes almost muscle memory."
Ruvoldt remembers undergoing Heimlich maneuver training during her junior year.
"We practiced it a lot, so I think that's what makes it easier. We really drilled it really hard," Ruvoldt said. "You use mannequins, do your workbooks pages, read your books. It's a lot of stuff that all goes into it and it really does help."
Med prep students study anatomy, physiology and pathophysiology, medical terminology/medical abbreviations, human growth and development, CPR, first aid, infection control and professional ethics.
"I believe it's about 200, 220 skills that our students can learn from the time they start until the time they end in their senior year. So that can be anything from first aid to CPR, that can go into physical therapy skills, nursing skills, medical assisting skills, lab skills, dental skills," Albers said. "We try to hit on everything so all of our students have kind of an understanding of 'Yep, that's the area of medicine I want to go into.' But it really gives them an opportunity to practice before they go to that next level, and it gives them a lot of confidence, and then it also gives them just an opportunity to open their eyes to different career paths in the medicine field."
Med prep students may choose to earn their CNA as part of the program. Qualifying students may also earn college credit.
"CNA is a certified nursing assistant," Ruvoldt said. "If you're going into nursing, it's a perfect way to get a head start, and we do the skills in the class anyway. So those people who are thinking that nursing's the pathway for you, it's perfect for them. You won't have to pay as much. You'll already be certified right out of high school."
Ruvoldt is not pursuing a CNA, as she dreams of being an ultrasound technician one day. She's been accepted into the University of Findlay and plans to study sonography.
