THUNDER BAY — A city high school student has been recognized for helping to save her dad's life after he went into sudden cardiac arrest.
Madeleine Caza, 15, recently received the ACT Rescuer Award from the Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation for successfully applying what she learned in school about cardiopulmonary resuscitation.
The near-tragedy happened at the family's Thunder Bay home in August, in the early hours of the morning.
After Clare Caza woke up to the sounds of her husband, Michel, gasping for air, she called out to him, but he was unresponsive and quickly stopped breathing.
Their 13-year-old son, Luke, heard his mother and entered his parents' room to find out what was happening, then called 911 while Clare started CPR, and ran to his sister's room to alert her.
Madeleine was trained through the ACT high school CPR and automated external defibrillator program.
Under guidance from the 911 operator, she and her brother placed their dad on the floor, and Madeleine took over performing CPR until firefighters arrived.
They shocked Michel five times with an AED before taking him to hospital.
Eventually, the 47-year-old man was transferred to Toronto General Hospital where doctors in the Peter Munk Cardiac Centre inserted an implantable cardioverter defibrillator before sending him back to Thunder Bay in September.
Madeleine, who's in Grade 11 at St. Patrick High School, recalled in an interview that when she saw her dad on the bed, she recognized from her training that he needed to be on a firm surface for CPR to work.
She also realized that compressions had to be applied higher on the chest.
In an interview, her mom said she had started doing CPR herself to the best of her abilities, "but then Madeleine noticed I wasn't high enough. and said 'Mom, you're not doing it correctly.' So I said, 'OK Madeleine, you do it,' and she jumped in and just did an amazing job."
Madeline described how she "just put my hands the way they were, and then just started, and the 911 operator was counting with me until the firemen came. It just felt like a natural instinct. I didn't even think twice."
Madeline received her CPR training in Grade 9 health class.
"I was able to save my dad's life because of the training," she said. "I definitely think it's important that all schools provide the program."
Because she plans to enter the medical field, she'd anticipated having to use CPR at some point, "but definitely not this soon in my life, especially someone in my family."
Erica Lorentz, the teacher who trained her through the ACT high school CPR and AED program, said "I'm super proud of her for stepping up the way she did, and feeling confident enough to do it was huge."
Michel Caza is expected to make a full recovery, and is grateful for his family's quick response, saying "I wouldn't be here if it wasn't for them and the ACT high school program."
Today, his wife calls his survival from cardiac arrest a miracle.
"It still seems kind of surreal. I feel we got so lucky, you know, we really, really got lucky...The stars aligned for him."
She described the ACT Foundation program as amazing, and noted that the incident has persuaded a cousin in southern Ontario to contact the school system her own children are enroled in to ensure it participates in the program as well.
" 'If they don't, they should,' " she quoted her cousin as saying, "because it saves lives. It really does."
The Advanced Coronary Treatment Foundation is a national charitable group using a community-based model whereby it finds local partners that donate mannequins and AED training units required for schools to deliver the program.
Teachers are then trained to teach lifesaving skills to their students as a regular part of the curriculum.
More information can be found on the ACT website.
