Children taught to be life savers

Gunnedah South Public School’s Year Six classes received life saving education last Friday when Cameron McFarlane taught CPR.

He is a fully qualified senior aquatic lifeguard and a Royal Life Saving Society trainer and assessor but Gunnedah locals may recognise him as a pool attendant at the Memorial Pool.

He travels throughout NSW to educate children on CPR and awareness but his program has also seen success in Vietnam.

DRSABCD (Danger, Response, Send for help, Airway, Breathing, CPR and Defibrillation) protocol was stepped out for the children and Mr McFarlane demonstrated how to perform CPR techniques on adults, children and babies.

Things such as the emergency response, knowing the emergency number and the recovery roll were taught.

The children were eager to practise techniques learnt for CPR on the mannequins before question and quiz time.

Mr McFarlane mentioned that children tend to ask how many lives he has saved but he believes it is about having that knowledge and practical skill rather than the credit.

Harmony Hunt and Allie Neilsen demonstrating CPR on a mannequin.

“[The people who needed CPR] did not live because I did it, they lived because I knew how to do it and that is the message we are trying to get across to the younger lives,” he said.

He went through questions and concerns that the children had.

Things like “what do you do if you don’t have a phone?”, “what do you do if you tire out and exhaust?” and “what do you do if it is unsafe when you turn up?” were concerns the group had.

The program initially started with year six students but after receiving schools’ feedback, he added Year Five to the mix.

“I find that is the best age, physically, they can do good, effective CPR on the mannequins and they mentally take it in as well,” Mr McFarlane said.

“I find Year Three and Four students will take in the information but are not really physically up to doing the practical side.

“Year Five and Six in my eyes is a perfect age to teach CPR effectively.”

The Gunnedah Times previously reported when the program hit 50,000 students in August last year.