CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, is an emergency technique that uses chest compressions and mouth-to-mouth artificial ventilation, in order to preserve or restore blood circulation and breathing in person whose heart has stopped beating. The technique can be learned through workshops or trainings and is generally recommended for anyone working with children or elderly people, or in certain lines of work. The American Heart Association says that almost 400,000 instances of cardiac arrest happen in non-hospital settings. This is the story of one such incident, and how CPR training can truly save lives.
Keith Ezell works as a nurse assistant at Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center, but he wasn’t at work when his CPR training became necessary. He had actually recently completed a CPR course and was carrying the proper equipment for it, when he was driving through Parma, Ohio and heard a crash. What he found was a terrible accident. Two cars had crashed and one of the drivers was screaming, “She’s not breathing! Help me! Help me!” The woman who was not breathing was very near death, and to make matters worse, she was pregnant.
“She was pretty much gone,” said Keith Ezell. “So I put her on the ground and administered CPR.” Keith administered CPR on the 23-year-old woman until the paramedics got there. The whole time he was thinking, “I have to get her back. She was turning blue. She had no pulse and I kept thinking she can’t die on me.”
Well, Keith’s effort paid off and soon the paramedics were able to take over. “They said they got a pulse! And I thought, ‘my job is done. She gets to live,'” said Keith. This heroic man later called the hospital and was told the crash victim had survived. Knowing that his 16 years of experience, and his recent training, had paid off, Keith then got in his car and went to his “real” job.
We can all hope that if we have the misfortune of such an accident that there will someone like Keith to help us!
Below is the harrowing video of Keith trying to save the young woman’s life!
