Five students from Lakes High School will receive Life Saving Awards from West Pierce Fire & Rescue on Wednesday, July 17th at 5:30 pm at Fire Station 21 located at 5000 Steilacoom Blvd SW in Lakewood.
These boys are being honored for their life saving efforts that happened on June 11, 2013. Five boys went to the LDS Church on Farwest Drive to play basketball. A fun day of basketball quickly turned into much more than that. Suddenly, 48 year old Leonardus (Leo) Castro fell to the floor and quit breathing. It didn’t take long for these five boys to move into action. J Slaughter was the first to act by calling 9-1-1. The 9-1-1 dispatcher instructed the boys to begin CPR. Jordan Johnson was the first to do CPR, followed by Dorshawn Suttle and Luis Roque. Both Dorshawn and Luis had learned CPR through the program offered by West Pierce Fire & Rescue at Lakes High.
Paramedics arrived and found the patient to be unresponsive and one of the boys to be conducting very effective CPR. Paramedics used the defibrillator and shocked the patient twice, provided advanced cardiac life support and transported him to a nearby hospital.
This is a perfect example of the American Heart Association’s Chain of Survival. Early recognition of the problem, early access to 9-1-1, early CPR and early advanced care led to a very successful outcome for Leo and his family. If you wish to take a CPR class please contact your local fire department for class availability.