OHIO (KRON/CNN) — An Ohio teacher is crediting his students with saving his life after he collapsed suddenly in his classroom, according to officials Tuesday.
Jim Pena, a Spanish teacher, has been out of class since last month when he collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest. Pena expresses, “I can’t express how happy I am to be here today to get to see all of you who did so much for me.”
The Junior and Senior students are being hailed heroes, after what can only be described as a “real life” lesson in situational awareness and preparation.
Pena states, “I don’t remember having any symptoms–anything– I just basically woke up two days later over here at OSU East hospital.”
The students took action by alerting the school nurse, “you could hear the panic in the students voices and you know something’s bad. I think adrenaline kinda takes over and then the training that you’ve had – that I had CPR as a nurse just kind of kicked in.”
A Columbus EMS team rushed Pena to a nearby hospital where doctors say the students, staff, and first responders did everything right.