Dartmouth sea cadet leaps into action to help man in distress

A young sea cadet is proud of the way he and his team handled a medical emergency at a Halifax-area festival over the weekend.

Mikhael Zavala, 16, was on his way to meet up with his fellow cadets during the annual Pirate Days festival at Fisherman's Cove in Eastern Passage on Saturday afternoon, where they were volunteering.

But as he was on his way, one of his officers came up to him and asked if he had his first aid training.

"I responded, 'Of course,' and so she brings me over to this man who was currently having a seizure, and they need a first aid responder," said Zavala, who's with the 24 Magnificent Royal Canadian Sea Cadet Corps in Dartmouth.

He said the man having the seizure was surrounded by his family members, and another man was holding an umbrella over his head to shield him from the sun.

'I had to focus at the task at hand'

As a large crowd formed at the scene, Zavala said he and a small group of other cadets leapt into action.

"The first thing to do was to make surethe crowd dispersed to give the family some space to take care of their son," he said.

"At which point, cadets were stationed out to keep the crowd away, and keep the road clear for when the paramedics arrived."

Zavala said he asked for consent to perform first aid on the patient, but the man's family declined.

A relative later contacted CBC to explain that while they appreciated the offer,the man has a recurring medical condition that the family manages on a regular basis.

Zavala said he remained on scene to ensure the man's condition didn't get worse and to provide water if it was needed.

He said he and the other cadets knew exactly what to do.

"As a cadet unit, we learned to work effectively together as teams," said Zavala, who's this year's corps coxswain.

"And so once the cadets saw that I was performing first aid and providing the primary assistance, they essentially understood that I was leading this whole thing."

While Zavala said he was one of a few cadets on scene with first aid training, he was the most familiar with that domain.

Still, he said he was nervous in the moment.

"Even though I was freaking out because it is a really stressful situation, I knew that I had to focus on the task at hand and not really focus on the fact that I was really nervous," he said.

"Which is always important, because as a first aid responder you can't visibly show that you are worried because then that puts your patient in a state of unease, which is never good for anyone."

Zavala said he doesn't know how the man is doing now, but his condition seemed to be improving by the time the ambulance arrived.

Officer proud of fast-acting cadets

Zavala's officer, Sub.-Lt. Angela Riley, was the one who initially asked him for help.

She said she has to redo her first aid training, and she thought Zavala would be the best for the task because he had recently returned from summer training.

Riley, 32, said she was proud of how quickly Zavala and the other cadets took charge of the situation.

"All of it just came together so quickly, and I hardly had to give them any direction," she said.

"These kids are going to grow up and they're going to make a difference."