JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — You might not expect your company training to be useful until it’s all you have. For Pat King, a school bus driver working with Durham School Services, remembering her CPR training made the difference in her bus monitor being alive.
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“The first thing I saw in my mind was the dummy we used to train on,” King said, “it might sound silly, but it’s the first thing that came to mind.”
Durham School Services says King performed 20 minutes’ worth of CPR on her bus monitor after she’d passed out and fallen to the ground while trying to help a student with disabilities onto the bus. The company says the monitor, who hasn’t been named, stopped breathing while helping the student, bound to a wheelchair, onto the ramp on the back of the bus.
“Her chest wasn’t moving, I listened for her heartbeat, heard nothing,” said King.
The bus monitor’s job is to keep kids safe getting onto and off of the bus. King never expected her monitor would be the one in need of saving.
“She’s my friend. She wasn’t breathing, I had to do something. I couldn’t just let her lay there,” King said.
Action News Jax requested the video of the monitor’s life being saved from Durham School Services, but the company denied sharing it with us. What we do have is something that may be part of the reason King’s bus monitor is still alive: a 2019 mandate through the Florida Department of Education requiring all state school bus drivers to have CPR training.
Without the training, King’s bus monitor might not be here.
“Without that training, I wouldn’t have known what to do,” said King, “I want to cry, it was a scary situation.”
King went to Englewood High School to receive Durham School Services’ “Frontline Hero” Award for saving a life. She says she has never received an award like this before and wishes her bus monitor, and friend, could have been there to see it.
“I want to tell her I love her and give her a big hug,” King said.
Durham School Services says the video of King’s efforts will be used to train future bus drivers on the importance of CPR training. The company says the bus monitor is still recovering from what happened.
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