Dunbar High School student Mia Santiago had a scare on campus last month.
She survived a seizure thanks to the quick thinking of two Fort Myers police officers stationed as school resource officers.
“I headed to my first-period class and I ended up falling and having my episode,” Santiago said.
Mia’s mother Laura Pequeno said she was told her daughter was turning white and gray as she struggled to breathe.
David Wood, a school resource officer with the Fort Myers Police Department, was in the right place at the right time.
“I was standing in the hallway, watching the students file in and we have our school radios, received notice that one of the students reportedly having a seizure in one of the classrooms upstairs,” Wood said.
Wood said he and other administrators ran to help Santiago. Officer David Sanchez, who was in the parking lot at the time of the call, arrived a short while later.
“The whole team, myself, Officer Sanchez, administration, all working together to get this young lady, the best care, we could until EMS arrived,” Wood said.
Training took over, Wood said.
“We were performing CPR and we attached the A.E.D. (automated external defibrillator) and luckily it did its job,” Wood said.
A.E.D.s are available throughout the 89 Lee County schools including all elementary and middle schools.
They also have a cardiac response team and plan that is reviewed annually.
“It’s definitely got me being very grateful, very humble and just very blessed,” Pequeno said.
Mia said she was grateful the officers didn’t give up on her.