Can you tell me a little bit about the SCA?
John:
Felicia was asleep on the third floor. Miraculously, she was able to wake up and call out to our daughter that she didn’t feel good, and our daughter saw Felicia slump over. I was on the second floor, and our daughter, Coco, screamed down to tell me that Felicia was on the floor, unconscious. She had an incident two weeks before the SCA, and Coco said it was happening again. I ran upstairs and she was on the floor, unconscious and gurgling, and I started CPR, chest compressions, and mouth-to-mouth. She wasn’t coming to, so I screamed for her dad to come up, and we were both doing CPR while Coco called 911 and talked to the paramedics. They came and took her in an ambulance. She came to at the hospital.
How has the SCA affected your life?
Felicia:
It’s definitely made me so grateful for every second of life, and I started to look at life differently afterwards. It was scary, but I had to overcome that and keep going. I’m so grateful to God, Coco, John, my parents, the EMS workers, and the doctors who put in my ICD. My ICD saved me again two times a few summers ago, and I feel like I’m in really good hands. ICDs and medicine can do so much for people living with heart conditions. You can live a full, happy life after a cardiac event.
I think it’s so important for schools and businesses to learn CPR and have AEDs and trainings. John learned CPR at work, and had just had a refresher a month before my SCA. The EMS workers said he did a great job. Doing something – compressions, early defibrillation, and calling 911 – can really help your chances of survival. Even though it seems scary, it’s worth it to take CPR classes and get an AED.
John:
Immediately after the event, Felicia was in the hospital. For the first 24 hours I was there with her, her memory was not good – she’d ask questions and I’d answer, and then she’d ask again right away. I thought I had performed CPR wrong and was really upset – I thought she might have brain damage. Thank God her memory came back – it was a miracle.
You could save a life by learning CPR – an SCA could happen at any time.