Eastwood Middle School teacher raises the importance of CPR training after saving student’s life

EL PASO, Texas (KVIA) -- Knowing cardiopulmonary resuscitation, more well known as CPR, could save someone’s life in an emergency that could happen anywhere, anytime.

Just ask Eduardo Quintanilla, a 6th grade physical education teacher at Eastwood Middle School.

Back in February, one of Quintanilla's classes had just started running a mile as part of the FitnessGram physical fitness test.

As he looked to the other side of the track, he saw a group of students huddled around another who had just fallen.

Quintanilla says while not uncommon for kids to trip during this test, he knew something wasn’t right this time, and immediately ran over to the fallen student.

"[I] looked for a pulse, couldn’t find a pulse, got close to him to check for breathing, didn’t get a sign either," said Quintanilla, talking to ABC-7 about what he remembered from that day.

The student was suffering from an unspecified cardiac event, and appeared lifeless.

After calling emergency services and staff for help, Quintanilla knew he had to jump into action and perform CPR.

“[The] student, again, there was no life from the student, [he] had purple and blue coloring, [so I] continued compressions, at which point I was about 16 or 17 compressions in, and he gasped for air," said Quintanilla.

The student eventually came to, became alert, and remained stable until emergency services were able to properly examine him.

Quintanilla is now being called a hero for his actions, and he says aside from being at the right place at the right time, his CPR training is directly to thank for that.

While all teachers Texas schools are required to be CPR certified from grades 7 through 12, Quintanilla says this is something everyone should be interested in learning.

Michelle Luevano, a CPR instructor at Proaction Emergency Services Institute, says getting this training could help you save a life.

“It can happen to us, it can happen to our parents unfortunately, it could happen at any time and most of the time we’re not prepared for an emergency, and we help them get prepared here at ProAction," said Luevano.

If you'd like to become CPR certified, you can click here to register for courses in both El Paso and Las Cruces.