COLORADO SPRINGS — The American Red Cross honored a local Colorado Springs teacher, Ms. Kira Castle, for saving the life of a student who was choking.
Castle is a 5th grade teacher at The Vanguard School, and she was honored with the Lifesaving Award for Professional Responders.
Castle received the award after performing the heimlich maneuver on a student in another classroom after he started choking on an apple.
Her colleague remembered that Castle had just taken a CPR and First Aid Training course, and she ran to her for help.
Castle said that in the moment, she thought, "Am I the one who is going to be doing this, am I the one who is trained well enough for this?"
As evidenced by the outcome, she certainly was.
Castle, however, does not want to take all the credit. She said that "it was such a whole school effort to make sure that this student was okay," and that "it was his homeroom teacher who responded so quickly and the assistant teachers who helped keep everyone else calm."
The Red Cross said they were proud to give the award to Castle.
"The fact that Kira stepped up, utilized her training from the Red Cross, and helped that person, saved that person's life, at her school is just an amazing feeling," said Red Cross of Southern Colorado Executive Director Phil Martinez. "That is what the essence is of the lifesaving award that we love to give out."
If you're interested in taking a first-aid, or other lifesaving course, the Red Cross offers a variety of training classes. To see what's available around you in southern Colorado, you can follow this link: https://www.redcross.org/local/colorado/take-a-class
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