On October 7th I answered a phone call at 8:30pm. This phone call forever burned into my brain. My dad was panicking.
My parents were in Gatlinburg TN. They were celebrating their 30th wedding anniversary.
My mom and dad weren’t planning to go out that night, they were actually planning on staying in. But they had this gut feeling it was their last day of vacation that they might as well go enjoy dinner for their anniversary. When they decided to go out to eat they went to one of their usuals “Cherokee Grill.” Upon check in with the waitress the wait was too long and they ventured down the road to “The Park Grill.”
A nice couple was seated directly after them. This couple from Pennsylvania. Visiting the Smokies for their honeymoon. The Pennsylvania couple who were not planning on stopping at all. They just had an all of a sudden urge to pull in and try this dining establishment. This couple: a registered cardiac ICU nurse, and her husband a medic sailor.
A ICU cardiac nurse, a medic sailor, and a woman about to suffer cardiac arrest were all in the same restaurant, at the same exact time. All of them not planning on eating there that day but did for “whatever reason.”
Cold chills.
Moments after ordering my mother collapsed.
The cardiac nurse immediately jumped into action. She performed CPR and her husband the medic ran to all nearby restaurants in search of an IED before squad arrived.
My mom was air evaced to the University of Tennessee. She awoke after three shocks to the heart. She is alive and well with a defibrillator now, in case it ever happens again.
9 out of 10 people who suffer cardiac arrest outside the hospital die. In most of those cases, bystander CPR was not performed. But we can change this.
Cardiac arrests happen at work, in homes, on athletic fields and in neighborhoods everywhere, and the readiness of our community can be the difference between life and death.
It's time to unite, take action, and save lives. Every walker who joins, every dollar donated, means more people trained in lifesaving CPR, more research and more lifesaving moments for everyone.
Walk with us, walk for Tammy, walk to save a life.