Westwood Senior Pradeep Tatineni first found a passion for lifesaving CPR training after learning his grandfather died of sudden cardiac arrest at the age of 43 in a small southern village in India. The death could have been prevented with CPR and Pradeep has made it his mission to train more than 1,000 students in the technique.
Pradeep trained the entire Westwood freshman class of 724 students during the October PSAT day and trained 312 students in May 2016. This summer, he plans to travel to the Indian village where his grandfather died to train 1,600 people in CPR.
“Pradeep is an outstanding student who has a true drive to make Westwood a better place,” Westwood Principal Mario Acosta said. “With Pradeep’s training, we have 1,036 students who have the training and potential to step up if needed and save lives.”
Pradeep trains students through Take 10, a three-step compression-only CPR technique that tasks bystanders to check for signs of life, call 911 and begin chest compressions. Take 10 is 90 percent as successful as the traditional CPR technique, which includes mouth-to-mouth breathing.
“CPR is an important skill,” Pradeep said. “Take 10 is free training with a goal to train half the population in Austin so if one person collapses, it’s likely someone around will be able to perform CPR.”