Bixby High School Staff Honored By EMSA For CPR Intervention

Teachers and staff at Bixby High School were honored by EMSA Wednesday morning for their efforts in saving a 15-year-old student after he went into cardiac arrest in mid-April.

Bixby school employees Jennifer Mahurin, Josh Smith, Rowland Vernon, Sharon Lenski and Roy Hunter worked to revive Jonathan Fussell with CPR and use of an Automated External Defibrillator [AED].

On April 16, 2012, EMSA dispatcher Trent Morris received a 911 call and guided the staff through the steps of CPR and use of the AED. When EMSA paramedics arrived, paramedics continued resuscitative efforts and took Fussell to a Tulsa hospital.

Jennifer Mahurin, who is a special ed teacher at Bixby, feels anyone in this type of situation would have done the same thing she and her fellow employees would have done.

According to a family friend, Jonathan Fussell is now stable in pediatric ICU at a Arkansas children's hospital following a heart transplant. The heart transplant was performed Tuesday, and it was Fussell's second -- his first came when he was just a 9-month-old.

EMSA says early intervention from the Bixby school staff gave the student a fighting chance.