Award for staff who resuscitated nine-year-old Dominik in sports hall

When nine-year-old Dominik Glowacki collapsed and had a sudden cardiac arrest during a PE lesson, his teachers were faced with every school’s nightmare.

But it was business as usual for the quick thinking members of staff from Chalkhill Primary School, in Barnhill Road, Wembley, who brought the young boy back from the brink of death.

Last week, Shahzad Ahmed, Eleanor Singh and Mohamed Addawe were rewarded for their bravery by the Royal Humane Society, a charity that assesses and awards acts of bravery in the saving of human life.

The ordeal happened on October 15 last year when Dominik, who had an undetected heart defect, collapsed on the floor in front of his school friends.

Courage

His heart had stopped beating after doing exercises in one of his lessons.

But luckily Mr Ahmed, a first aider, was on hand to quickly begin mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while Mr Addawe, a support teacher, carried out chest compressions on the youngster.

Ms Singh, a teaching assistant, provided vital support to her colleagues by communicating instructions between the emergency services and the staff working on Dominik.

Miraculously they restarted the little boy’s heart and within 15 minutes an ambulance had arrived. Dominik suffered another series of cardiac arrests on his way to Northwick Park Hospital and remained on a ventilator, fighting for his life for several days at Royal Brompton Hospital.

Defying all the odds, the Year 5 pupil has recovered and was able to return to the school in January.

Rose Ashton, the school’s headteacher, praised her members of staff and said she was incredibly proud of them.

She said: “At Chalkhill we have 14 trained first aiders and this critical incident identified the efficiency, courage and tenacity of the Chalkhill team.

“And as a result of this incident we are now fundraising to buy a defibrillator for the school.”