CPR Saved My Life
On Veterans Day 2020, I was out for a run with my 12-year-old son, Luke. I wasn’t in the best shape, but since he was working to get into better shape for hockey, I thought it wouldn’t hurt for me to join him. We live in a rural part of Madison County, Alabama, and we were running on a long stretch of driveway that we share with our neighbors and family. We’d run for a short distance when I went into cardiac arrest. As I fell, I dropped onto Luke and knocked him to the ground. As soon as I collapsed, Luke ran toward the nearest house, yelling for help. Although that neighbor wasn’t home, another neighbor, Laura Lee Taylor Branum, was outside her house on the other side of a pasture. When she heard Luke shouting and saw me lying motionless on the ground, Laura Lee called 9-1-1 and drove across the pasture to my aid. She immediately began CPR chest compressions and sent Luke to get my wife. Laura Lee continued CPR for several minutes until sheriff’s deputies arrived to take over. In addition to continuing chest compressions, the sheriff’s deputies also applied an Automated External Defibrillator (AED).
After nearly 20 minutes of CPR, multiple shocks from the AED, and the use of a LUCAS machine by the local volunteer fire department, I eventually recovered a pulse just as the ambulance arrived at our property. I was taken to the hospital for treatment and spent the next few days undergoing a battery of heart tests and exams – X-rays, CT scans, MRI, heart catheterization – but no definitive cause was ever identified. I received an Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) and was able to return home 3 days after my event. I have since recovered, and except for the ICD, I don’t feel any different than I did before my cardiac arrest.
God saved my life through the quick thinking of my son and the immediate CPR provided by my neighbor and sheriff’s deputies. Of the ~350,000 people in the US who suffer Out-of-Hospital Cardiac Arrest every year, only ~10% survive; and of those who survive, nearly 25% suffer some form of cognitive impairment. Early recognition and immediate initiation of CPR are critical to both survival and the likelihood of cognitive recovery.
Having experienced the life-saving benefits of CPR, I want to make sure that people are aware of and take advantage of CPR and AED training opportunities provided by the American Heart Association. You never know when God will use you to save the life of a loved one, firend, or co-worker.
