SCHOOLS

Three honored for lifesaving efforts in North Merrick

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Three women received awards from the North Merrick School District and State Assemblyman David McDonough at last week’s North Merrick Board of Education meeting for their actions on Sept. 11 this year, when a Camp Avenue Elementary School aide went into sudden cardiac arrest.

Mari Titterton, the Camp Avenue nurse; Susan Heaphy, a substitute nurse; and Karen Nolan, a phys. ed. teacher, ran to the aid of Gloria Spader, who lay unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse in a Camp Avenue hallway. Titterton arrived first and began cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Spader. Heaphy arrived next with a school automated external defibrillator, handing it to Titterton, who used the device to deliver an electric jolt to Spader’s heart. Nolan came shortly after with a backup AED. (For the Herald Life’s original story on these events, click here.) Spader regained consciousness, and a month later, she had recovered sufficiently to attend the Oct. 14 board meeting.

“It was a miracle,” Spader said at the meeting. “I didn’t know what was going on. I get stories from everyone. I was there, but I wasn’t there.”

“God bless these people who helped you,” McDonough remarked.

“Absolutely,” Spader answered. “They’re my angels. I call them my angels.”

McDonough and North Merrick Superintendent David Feller presented citations to Titterton, Heaphy and Nolan before a room filled mostly with their family members, friends and colleagues. Each received a standing ovation.

“It’s thrilling to be able to present citations to three people at the Camp Avenue School who really were heroes,” Feller said. “… But I would like to say that everyone at the Camp Avenue School really did what needed to be done on that particular day, whether they be teacher aides or secretaries, [Principal Ron Reinken] in terms of keeping people calm, making sure that people were doing the right thing … so it was really a team effort.”

McDonough, a North Merrick Republican, is running for reelection.