Fast moving CPR class keeps students pumped

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A personal trainer at a gym saw the posted flier offering CPR classes and called Malky Tropper, EMT and CPR instructor and asked to learn. The woman took the class and Tropper got a call from her eight months later.

“I was in Williamsburg,” said the non-Jewish woman excitedly, “and I saw a Jewish boy with the long curls choking on a hard candy. He fell unconscious and I saved the boy by doing what you taught me! I beat the Jewish ambulance!” she exulted.

Tropper was at it again, teaching 38 animated, focused women CPR, the Heimlich maneuver and use of the AED (Automated External Defibrillator). The class, hosted by the Young Israel of Woodmere, was free, sponsored by Achiezer and Hatzalah. A similar course for men was held in the morning at the Hatzalah garage, 621 Beach 9 St. in Far Rockaway.

“These are life skills that are important to know and is something we should offer the community to enable them to learn,” Achiezer Development Coordinator Eli Weiss told The Jewish Star.

Tropper said it’s an important “safeguard for self, neighbors, anyone, so that if someone chokes you don’t say, ‘What do I do’?”

She called out directions, visually surveying the women to insure that all were participating correctly, took questions, answered clearly, repeated and had the class follow her lead and repeat what was taught. Students were told to quickly look at the victim (the dummy), tap it and ask “Are you ok?’ quickly check the head and chest for signs of breathing, “not breathing, not breathing,” point to a bystander and yell, “Call Hatzalah! Get the defibrillator!” and commence CPR of 30 chest compressions and two breaths into the mouth, over and over.

Tropper explained how to open the airway, tilting the chin up, and explained that the CPR is the same for a child and to repeat the CPR until emergency medical services come and take over or there are signs of life. With a choking infant, the baby’s body is held along the adults arm, its face to be squeezed in the adult’s hand to prevent shaken baby syndrome, and to administer five back blows followed by five chest thrusts with two fingers between the infant’s nipples. This should be repeated until the obstruction clears, or if the infant loses consciousness, then do CPR, 30 finger chest compression followed by two breaths and repeat until EMS arrives or there are signs of life.

The two and a half hour class covered the techniques in detail and is required to gain a working knowledge of CPR, the Heimlich maneuver and use of a defibrillator.

Tropper noted that an adult who collapses is most likely a victim of a heart attack, generally over 35 years old. A child who collapses could be a choking victim, suffering from anaphylactic shock, or some breathing problem. She stressed the importance of beginning CPR immediately and with that you have a 70% chance of saving the child. She pointed out that six of her students from Camp Sternberg saved babies from sudden infant death syndrome with CPR. “Anyone unconscious gets CPR,” called out Tropper.

She had all the women stand and demonstrate the Heimlich maneuver and then announced that only three performed it correctly. “Fist just above the belly button and push up towards the mouth, from age one and up,” she declared, but cautioned not to do it on a pregnant woman.

“If a child is choking and conscious, get behind, wrap your hands around and do it as hard as you can, three or four times, no rachmonus!” She said you don’t “Heimlich” if the person can speak. If you are choking, throw yourself over the back of a chair or the corner of a counter and if it doesn’t work run out into the street so someone can help. “Abdominal thrusts works beautifully,” she said.

She stressed that the pumping of chest compressions pushes the blood and oxygen to the brain, preserving the brain. She also pointed out that every shul should have a defibrillator and noted the case of a man who donated one to Yeshiva Chaim Berlin and was saved by that very same defibrillator when he collapsed at the school.

Tropper’s career as a CPR instructor was serendipitous. She was in her thirties at the time in the dining room at Camp Horim where her husband was the cook. A camper was choking and she remembered a sign in a pizza shop with a diagram and instructions on how to do the Heimlich maneuver.

“I saved the child and realized that I don’t want to rely on someone else so I became an EMT so I would know what to do.”

Tropper, who taught CPR in Camp Sternberg for 26 years, also offers private classes in her home. She is an American Heart Association instructor and an American Health and Safety Institute Instructor.

Visit Achiezer.org or call 516-791-4444.