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Story Credit to the Dayton Public Schools
Public Information Office · 115 South Ludlow Street · Dayton, Ohio 45402 · (937) 542-3052
www.dps.k12.oh.us
February 7, 2008
Contact: Jill Moberley, Public Information Officer
Jmoberle@dps.k12.oh.us
For Immediate Release
Patterson-Kennedy student hailed as hero
Halie Martin honored by Red Cross for life-saving actions
This past Christmas, Penny Bane gave her granddaughter the gift of education – a weeklong course in emergency first-aid training through the Dayton-area American Red Cross.
One week after completing the course, Halie Martin also gave her grandmother a valuable present – the gift of life.
The family had gathered in the kitchen; Bane was eating chicken, when suddenly, a piece became lodged in her throat.
“My hands flew up to my throat; I was gasping. My daughter recognized I was choking and started beating me on the back … I was starting to black out.”
Martin, a sixth-grade student at Patterson-Kennedy PK-8 School, didn’t hesitate, Bane remembers.
“When Halie jumped behind me, I felt her doing (the Heimlich maneuver) so hard that the chicken flew out of my mouth. I think she got scared after that, realizing what had almost happened.”
“I just acted,” Martin said about that fateful afternoon.
Bane still wells up at the memory. “I never dreamed that it could have happened to me,” she said. “I think it’s really great that the Red Cross teaches first aid and CPR. I thank god that my granddaughter paid attention in class, and (the training) really worked.”
According to Marianne Urban, director of health services for Dayton Public Schools and a Red Cross board member, the babysitting course that Halie completed is one of many lifesaving courses available through the Red Cross, and a popular one among young people. The course teaches skills such as rescue breathing, the Heimlich maneuver, poison control and basic first-aid.
“It gives them lots of skills so they know what to do in an emergency, when they’re in charge,” Urban said. “It’s a great course, and the kids love it.”
The Dayton Area Chapter of the American Red Cross learned of Martin’s actions and will honor her, along with three other groups, during its annual board meeting and volunteer recognition ceremony on March 25, beginning at 11:30 a.m. at the Mandalay Banquet Center.
Martin said she was happy to be able to have the training.
“I feel pretty heroic,” she said. “I saved my grandma’s life.”
Halie Martin saved her grandmother Penny Bane’s life by using the Heimlich maneuver, which she learned through the American Red Cross.
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Melissa Fowler
Communication Specialist
Public Information Office
Dayton Public Schools
(937) 542-3023
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