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Students and staff at a Maryland high school come to the aid of a teacher suffering a heart attack, saving his life. A few weeks ago, North Point High School welding teacher Frank Holiday was playing basketball with some students when he collapsed. Students ran to get help and the first to respond was Charlie Burch, the construction teacher from the next room. Amy Robinson, the school’s CPR trainer also responded.
Burch and Robinson knew that Holiday’s condition was dire, so they started CPR and Robinson attached an automated external defibrillator (AED). "To be honest, Frank did not look good. He definitely didn't,” Robinson recalls. “There were no signs of life from him.” School resource officer Tiffany Smith, who also responded to the emergency, says they spent 21 minutes performing CPR on Holiday between all of the people there helping.
No one would have been blamed if they’d stopped at any point, but because they persisted, Holiday survived and made a full recovery and just a few weeks later was back at work. They later learned that Holiday had suffered what’s referred to as a “widow maker” heart attack and he’s alive today because his students and coworkers wouldn’t give up on him. He says there’s a lesson in there for anyone, “If it gets hard, don’t quit.”