Real Life CPR Event

 A Student's Response: BLS Skills Performance After Our Class!! 

March 3, 2026 BLS Skills Session
March 4, 2026-BLS in Action

Here are the details of the cardiac arrest situation I encountered in front of my home:

My wife and I were in the house cooking dinner, and around 4:40pm I received a call from a neighbor across the road.  He told me that there was someone with a bicycle laying in the middle of the road in front of my house.  My first thought was it was one of my kids because they had just been out front riding their bikes.  So, my wife and I immediately ran outside and saw an older gentleman, who looked to be around 55 to 60 years of age, lying in the road.  So, this was an unwitnessed event.  I had my 15 year old son come to the edge of the road to stop any traffic that may come down the road in order to keep the scene safe.  I ran to him while telling my wife (who is also medically trained as she is a nurse practitioner) to call 911.  When I got to him his color was a dusky blue color.  My wife and I then checked for a pulse and breathing.  He had no pulse and appeared to have agonal breathing.

  I immediately started hands only CPR.  While doing CPR I could also see where he hit his head on the road when he fell down.  After about two minutes, he started to have more frequent respirations but they still appeared to be gasping agonal breathing.  Nonetheless, I then checked for a pulse but he still had no pulse and his breathing then completely stopped.  So, I then resumed CPR and had another neighbor go to the house next to mine and ask for more help because I was quickly becoming very tired from performing chest compressions.  My neighbor, who is also a respiratory therapist as I am, and he took over performing chest compressions.  After nearly five minutes, the victim began to have what looked like normal respirations.  My neighbor and I then checked for a pulse to find that he did in fact have a pulse and an adequate breathing pattern and rate.  At this point, we discontinued CPR.  He received CPR for just under five minutes.  Within about 30 seconds of finding that he had a pulse, he started to move and began to moan. 

 Then about a minute later, the fire department and EMS both arrived on scene.  As they took over, I briefed them on the details of the situation up to that point.  The victim maintained a heart rate and normal breathing.  He also began to talk coherently to the first responders, being able to tell them his name and properly answering the questions they were asking.  As this entire event was caught on my home security cameras, one of the EMT’s and I reviewed the footage to see if he had been hit by a car, which we saw that he had not been.  In fact, what occurred was that he was riding his bike, but then, for whatever reason, he got off of his bike and began to walk beside it.  After walking with his bike for just a few seconds, he then stopped and fell to the ground rather hard, hitting his head.  EMS then loaded the victim onto the stretcher and transported him to the hospital.  He continued to have a heart rate, normal breathing, and talking normal for the rest of the time at the scene.

Dr. Brown, I am thankful for having renewed my BLS with you just the day prior to this event.  I have no doubt that you helping me refresh my skills and BLS knowledge in your class, as well as helping me to improve the effectiveness of those skills through your appropriate critical analysis and correction of my skill set, contributed to my ability to deliver high-quality CPR, leading to the survival of this individual.  So, again, I want to thank you for your wisdom and guidance I received through your class.  This man will likely never know who it was that helped him survive by performing life-saving CPR, but I am wholly and completely fine with that because it is absolutely not about receiving recognition but, rather, about saving a life!!