Emergency rescue training pays off for waitress
by Sara Stefanini
Gazette Staff Writer

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Feb. 2, 2005

Courtney Heyliger-Webb had reached the end of her shift at the Red Lobster restaurant in Gaithersburg and was trying to find another waiter to serve an elderly couple at one of her tables.

At first, she ignored the commotion coming from the dining area, until she heard a man yell, "'does anybody know the Heimlich?'" she said.

A woman sitting at Heyliger-Webb's table--the one she had been trying to pass to another waiter--was choking.

For the first time, Heyliger-Webb, an administrative volunteer at the Gaithersburg-Washington Grove Volunteer Fire Department, put her cardiopulmonary resuscitation training to the test by performing the Heimlich maneuver, invented by physician Henry Heimlich in 1974, which dislodges food stuck in a person's throat.

"I saw that her chest didn't really move, and she was squeaking," Heyliger-Webb, 19, said. "They teach us to ask 'can you speak?' And 'can you breathe?' (Doing CPR) wasn't really hard, she was kind of fragile, so I was worried I would hurt her."

The couple declined to elaborate on the incident, but said they were very grateful.

The fire department, which has more than 100 volunteers, requires that both administrative and active volunteers become CPR-certified. Active volunteers are also required to undergo emergency medical technician training.

"I was really confident with the CPR because I thought the department trained me well," said Heyliger-Webb, who joined the department's junior fire brigade when she was 16 is now studying criminal justice at Montgomery College.

When they join, volunteers go through a seven to eight-hour CPR training program, said Brenda Knopp, an administrative volunteer in charge of the CPR classes. They must then renew their certification every year by taking a three- to four-hour class.

Administrators can then choose whether or not to take more courses, said Knopp's husband, Ken Knopp, an active volunteer in charge of EMT training.

"They can go through classes at the public service training academy," he said. "I think over half the administrative volunteers do it."

After doing the CPR training, active volunteers must take a 125-hour EMT training course. If they then want to become firefighters, they must also undergo 135 hours of training in basic firefighting skills.

The department pays for all the training classes, Ken Knopp said. The CPR classes cost $50 each, while "the EMT classes are in the hundreds."

The department also offers CPR classes to the public once a month for $50.

During the eight-hour class, people learn full CPR, how to use an automatic external defibrillator, which give the heart an electric shock, and how to deal with other respiratory problems, Brenda Knopp said.

The amount of people who take the class, which can carry up to 15 people, varies depending on the time of year, she said. During the summer lifeguards often take it, and in the fall people entering nursing or medical school will take it.

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT TAKING A GWGVFD CPR COURSE.

CLICK HERE FOR INFORMATION ABOUT BECOMING A GWGVFD MEMBER.