Calhoun High School senior Zahrah Ibrahim revived her grandmother, Graciela, after the woman passed out at a basketball game at Calhoun High School.
Panic broke out at a basketball game at Calhoun High School when Graciela Ibrahim, 78, of Merrick, passed out in the bleachers. Graciela was with family members at the March 19 competition for the North Bellmore-North Merrick Basketball League when she collapsed. The hysteria subsided when Graciela’s granddaughter and Calhoun High School senior, Zahrah Ibrahim, performed chest compressions on her grandmother and revived her.
“She was cold, had purple lips and was very pale,” Zahrah said. “It was very scary.” Immediately after Graciela collapsed, Sam Ibrahim, Zahrah’s father and the president of the North Bellmore-North Merrick Basketball League, poured water on the woman’s face in an attempt to shock her back to consciousness. Zahrah followed by trying to take her pulse, but was unable to find it. She began the CPR procedure that she had first learned in her eighth grade physical education class and continued to practice as a lifeguard.