A few weeks ago, Sonia Semenic, Associate Professor and PhD Program Director at the Ingram School of Nursing, went for a lunch-time run on the mountain. Little did she realize, her training in CPR would help save a life. Here鈥檚 her story:
鈥溾�ust ahead of me a man jogging with two buddies collapsed with a sudden cardiac arrest. He was in great shape 鈥� late thirties, had just run the Boston marathon. He was in full cardiac arrest 鈥� I immediately started CPR with one of his friends while the other frantically called 911, and 4th year 海角社区 medical student David Galiano just happened to come jogging from the other direction and jumped into action taking turns doing cardiac massage. We kept going for what seemed to be at least 10 minutes before the first responders finally arrived in the fire truck with a defibrillator and were able to restart his heart. By the time the ambulance arrived, the victim was conscious and responding but disoriented and showing signs of severe hypoxia. The rescuers were shaken up but elated, we congratulated ourselves and took some group photos and exchanged emails with the man鈥檚 running partner so that he could let us know what happened to his friend, and we hoped the victim would somehow be OK."
"Today, the man, David Pellerin, sent us a lovely email and photo from his hospital room to thank us. Miraculously, he has suffered no sequelae, but was diagnosed with a dangerous arrythmia. This was an incredible lesson for David and I, as health professionals, and there is an important message here for the public: EVERYONE SHOULD LEARN CPR, and people can emerge from lengthy CPR unscathed, so never give up! This man is alive and well because 3 people who knew CPR just happened to be in his vicinity when he collapsed, and were able to keep him alive until the first responders were able to find us on the mountain.鈥�
The Ingram School of Nursing is providing Basic Life Support (BLS) Provider Training Sessions via our Continuing Nursing Education (CNE) Office. Find out more.听
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