NEW YORK (PIX11) — Their motto is “Be prepared.” Some New York and New Jersey Scouts showed they were truly ready for anything when a man needed CPR on their recent flight to LaGuardia.
The group, affiliated with the National Jewish Committee on Scouting, was returning from a scouting trip to New Mexico on July 11. Midair, a fellow passenger on the Southwest Flight, collapsed. The flight attendants called for medical personnel.
Troop Committee Chair Evan Gilder, who is CPR certified, said the man was in cardiac arrest and quickly realized he would need to create a CPR line to administer continuous CPR. He called on several of his Scouts to help.
“We’re focused on what needs to be done here. You can really only do CPR for 3 to 4 minutes. It’s not feasible to do it anymore because you tire, and everything degrades,” Gilder told PIX11 News.
Eagle Scout Ariel Yaron, 16, of Troop 611 in Brooklyn, was among those in line to perform the lifesaving technique. It’s a lesson he first learned as a Boy Scout in fourth or fifth grade.