Marvis Jackson-Ivy and Brenda Robinson each remember taking a CPR class more than a decade ago, but they never had a reason to use it. As the years slipped by, so did the training.
But then 7-year-old Hannah Turner collapsed May 21 in a school office at McCorkle elementary school, 4421 S. State St.
The assistant principal and the teacher’s assistant instinctively took their places without saying a word, Jackson-Ivy blowing air into Hannah’s mouth, while Robinson administered chest compressions.
“I didn’t even know I knew how to do it anymore, but I’m so glad I remembered,” Robinson said.
If not for those long-ago classes, Hannah, who has asthma, would have died within minutes. Her airways had closed from a possible allergic reaction, paramedics said.
On Thursday, Hannah joined with Chicago Fire Commissioner Raymond Orozco to thank Jackson-Ivy, Robinson and the paramedics who saved her life.
Hannah, in an aqua blue dress and white Mary Janes, couldn’t reach the microphone for the event at McCorkle, so paramedic Tony Vuletic lifted her up.
“I love you all, and God bless you,” she said softly.
Fire officials said Hannah’s attack is a perfect example of the “chain of survival” that can save a person’s life and urged everyone to take the time to learn CPR. In Hannah’s case, the chain started with knowledgeable school personnel, followed by paramedics, then the nurses and doctors — all who knew what to do under pressure to save the unresponsive girl.
People say they are too busy to take a class, “but we’re not that busy,” Orozco said. “You can truly save a life.”
Hannah, who is in 1st grade, was diagnosed with asthma at 8
months, said her mother, Anna Johnson. But other than a severe attack when she was 3, the asthma didn’t trouble her too much.
On that May afternoon, teacher Renee Thomas noticed Hannah was crying and wheezing. She took her to the school office and staff called her family to bring her breathing machine.
Then, Hannah’s eyes started to close and she stopped breathing.
“All I could hear was praying,” said Jackson-Ivy, describing the teachers and administrators who surrounded the pair as they administered CPR to the girl on the floor.
School at McCorkle wraps up this week, and Hannah is back at her desk, said her teacher, after two weeks at the University of Chicago Comer Children’s Hospital to allow her lungs to heal. Thomas visited often, and Hannah wanted constant updates on what was going on at school, she said.
Now that she’s out of the hospital, Hannah and her family are heading to the Wisconsin Dells to celebrate her recovery.
“Thank God they were there,” Johnson said.
———-
aaguilar@tribune.com
