A Winnipeg man thanked two people who saved his life. For Mark Smith, he was given the gift of time last Christmas. His life was saved when his heart abruptly stopped breathing while jogging.
The 62-year old collapsed on a Wellington Crescent sidewalk and might have died. With the help of an “angel” who performed CPR, it changed his fate.
Jaime Boulerice, a teacher who was across the street when Smith collapsed. She and her close friend Liz Morales were some of the first to help after his heart ceased to beat. The two rushed over to Smith and saw that he was not breathing. They helped lay him down on the ground while a man performed CPR while a second man called for emergency assistance.
No memory
Smith only remembers that he was going for a run. It was 5 days later when he woke up in a healthcare facility with tubes in his chest after a triple bypass surgery.
While Smith was in a cardiac intensive care unit, the paramedics who brought him to the healthcare facility informed his wife someone performed CPR for 10 minutes before the first responders arrived.
They had to defibrillate Smith at the scene and another in the ambulance. In one study, a percentage of individuals suffering heart attacks outside a healthcare facility can be resuscitated.
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LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a CPR training class and for more information, check out these sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/first-aid/cpr
https://www.webmd.com/heart-disease/qa/what-is-cardiopulmonary-resuscitationcpr