ACE Academy Teacher Saves Two Lives With CPR

A middle school science and math teacher at ACE Academy in Holly Springs is being hailed as a hero after saving the lives of two victims of a lightning strike while on vacation in Montana.
Steven Keith, a 19-year veteran of the Cherokee County School District, teaches math and physical, life, and earth science. Keith was on vacation with his brother Glen, a major in the Army, and the major's daughter. Glacier National Park in Montana was their fourth stop during the trip.
On July 17, their first day at the park, the trio hiked some popular trails and made it to St. Mary Falls before the weather began to turn sour around 4 p.m.
"A mile into the trail, it started to rain hard, so we decided to turn back," Keith said. "About a quarter of the way back to the trailhead, there was this lightning bolt instantly followed by a thunderclap, which freaked us out."
Two to three minutes later, as the group was turning left onto a switchback, they encountered three people who had been struck by the lightning.
"My first thought was that these people had been killed by the strike," Keith said. "My second thought was, 'We have to do something.'"
Another hiker coming from the opposite direction named Beth came upon the scene at about the same time as the Keiths and began using CPR to revive one of the victims. Keith, who had last certified in CPR at least two years ago, began resuscitating a young woman, later identified as 23-year-old Kinsey Leishman.
"When I was giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation, I could taste the electricity from the lightning in her saliva," Keith said.
After four cycles of CPR, Keith brought Leishman back, but she was still unconscious. Beth was trying to revive a young man, later identified as 23-year-old Travis Heitman.
As Keith was working on Leishman, he noticed an 11-year-old boy off to the side who was also incapacitated.
Once Keith was sure Leishman's vitals were stable, he moved over to the boy, later identified as Cadence, in an attempt to save his life.
Later investigation revealed that Leishman and Heitman were friends, and Heitman was serving as a mentor to young Cadence.
"After four cycles, he hadn't revived, and I was getting worried," Keith said. Keith said he fell back on an old Hollywood cliche and slapped Cadence and exhorted him to wake up between performing compression cycles.
After the sixth cycle, Cadence started breathing.
While all this was happening, Keith's brother Glen and his daughter had run back down the trail shouting for help. They managed to find a Park Ranger and another hiker, who came to offer assistance.
The Ranger brought oxygen with him, which was used on Cadence. Keith stayed with the boy while gurneys were brought in, and talked to him despite the fact that Cadence was still unconscious.
After Leishman and Heitman were taken to the hospital by Ambulance and Cadence was life flighted to safety, Keith gave Beth a huge bear hug. 
"I didn't get her contact info, though," Keith said. "I would like to get in touch with her."
Keith has since talked to Leishman's father, and a revelation he made caused Keith to stress the need for more people to learn CPR.
"He told me that if it was him on the trail instead of me, and his daughter was lying there on the ground, he wouldn't have been able to help her because he doesn't know CPR," Keith said.
Keith said that CPR is what saved the three victims' lives, not any individual heroism on his part.
"It's amazing the way it brought these people back," Keith said.
Keith only arrived back at ACE Academy yesterday, and said he has fallen back into the routine of pre-planning for the school year, which begins on Monday.
However, he is now emphasizing to the people he meets that they should train in CPR and abdominal thrusts, also known as the Heimlich maneuver.
"I never thought I'd be in a situation like that, but I'm glad that I was," he said.