Over the summer, one of our very own students saved a life at The Plunge, and I had the privilege of interviewing her to learn how she dealt with the experience. Ashley De La Cruz-Martin is a junior this year. 

I asked her what her initial reaction was to walking by and seeing that happen. “Well, at first I was nervous, not gonna lie. I was in a bit of shock. It just took me a second to start doing the procedures, so I went up to him, and then I’m like, okay, I need to do something. At first, everybody I asked, like, did they call him an ambulance? And they’re like, yes, they did, and well, I’m like okay. I thought it was a heat stroke at first, and I was like, okay, I’m gonna just grab a little towel, I wet it… Then I started doing the CPR. I started with 30 compressions, 2 breaths, 30 compressions, 2 breaths. I was pretty nervous because, like, he started getting purple and bluish, and I was like, I’m not sure what’s going on. And his breath, he was grasping… So it was pretty bad. So I just continued the CPR until the people came.” As a high school student, I can only imagine the stress she was going through while doing this, knowing that his life depended on it. 

When I asked how she knew CPR, her answer was a very Discoverer answer. I asked, “How did you, like, learn CPR? Like, was it for a job or anything? Like, any specific reason why?” She said,  “Yes, I took Health Sciences II last semester, my sophomore year, and it was Miss Kallhoff. I loved the class, by the way.” Special mention to Ms. Kallhoff, because of her Health Science I lesson that De La Cruz-Martin took, which helped her save a life!

I asked how she felt about the attention because of her heroic act and how she’s dealt with the attention. De La Cruz-Martin is someone who has always been on the quieter side of people, so hearing how she feels with so much attention on her now is nice to see how she feels. “Oh, my goodness. I have been very, I don’t know. It’s been pretty great, but I honestly, I’m glad he’s okay, and I don’t know, I just feel so appreciated and thankful. I’m just thankful for all the teachers and people who have been supportive of me and it helps me continue the career path that I want to be.” With how great her reaction time was with only this incident, it is safe to say that the health field will do great with her in it.