High School students being hailed as heroes for saving another student

By Madison Elliott

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    LOUISVILLE, Kentucky (WLKY) — Five students at Central High School are being hailed heroes.

Earlier this month, two students accidentally bumped into each other while running during gym class.

A tooth from one of the students cut into the forehead of the other student and lacerated an artery, according to the district.

High school junior Amontez Woolfolk says he jumped into action as soon as he saw the collision happened and noticed blood.

Then, four other students stepped up to help as well. Ashton Tunstull, Ken’yale Bailey, Sanai Geer and Jesus Lopez.

Tunstull, Bailey and Geer are all in the allied health program, where they are learning about the health sciences.

Tunstull, who is in the pre-med program, said his training from the program took over.

He helped sit the student down and applied pressure to the wound.

“Instinct really kicked in,” he said. “Along with some of the things I’ve been taught. Like during our sophomore year, we learned a lot about emergency procedures, and just really how to assess a scene and get everything situated.”

Geer, who is in the pre-nursing program, said she ran and found gauze.

“I’m like ok, well, they have paper towels on his head; that’s not the best sanitary options for like infections and stuff like that,” she said.

Dr. Keith Miller, a trauma surgeon at UofL, says the face has a lot of blood vessels and a person can bleed to death very quickly.

He says their quick action saved a life.

“Seconds to minutes matter and so we are talking about a very short time interval to jump in and intervene,” he said.

Taylor Champion, a pre-nursing instructor at Central, says this goes to show how important these classes are.

“They are capable even today as high school students of making a significant difference,” she said.

The district says while the student had to get a few stitches, they are doing ok and are back in class.

UofL also leads Stop the Bleed training for the community.

The next course is at the Newburg Community Center on Feb. 26 from 6 to 7:30 p.m.

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