Parents’ deaths spur student’s idea for a CPR-assistance device

EAGLE MOUNTAIN, Utah — A Utah high school student who lost both her parents to heart attacks has been nominated for a prestigious scholarship on the strength of her idea for a CPR-assistance device.

Kennedy Hall’s idea is to create a device that fits over a person’s nose and mouth and do artificial breaths for a person, the Daily Herald in Provo reports.

Hall said a machine like she’s envisioning might have helped her parents, who died after a lack of oxygen caused brain damage.

“Many people have the basic idea of CPR, but don’t know what they are doing,” Hall said.

She said her parents’ deaths made her hyper aware of what’s going on around her and prompted her to think about ideas to help others.

“If a device like this had been made at the time, I am wondering how much of a difference it would have made for them, if they would still be here, or how much of a bigger chance that they would have had,” Hall said. “So if something like this was created, it would make a huge difference, I think, in the CPR world and in the medical world.”

Hall is a senior at Cedar Valley High School in Eagle Mountain. She was chosen as the school’s nominee for the Career and Technical Education Presidential Scholarship Award.

She hopes to attend Utah State University and become a trauma surgeon.

Brigitte Reall, a specialist at the school’s Career and Technical Education program, said she is impressed by Hall’s strength after losing both of her parents.

“She wants to help, to turn it around and make awareness of these issues that we have with CPR,” Reall said.