This Thanksgiving, a Houston mother is grateful to be alive after suffering from cardiac arrest and her husband saving her.
Dalyce Bradshaw said the morning it happened started as a typical day working from home. She said she opened a Teams meeting and turned on the camera to talk to a colleague across the globe.
“[We] got a couple of minutes of pleasantries out of the way at the beginning and got down to business,” Dalyce said.
On this particular call, Dalyce happened to tell her coworker that her husband worked for the same company. That exchange of information turned out to be lifesaving because shortly after, she went into cardiac arrest.
Since the coworker was in Australia, there was nothing she could do to help Dalyce, but she remembered the name of her husband, who she furiously began messaging.
“He was actually just walking out of our apartment, he forgot his coffee so he walked back in. He heard his computer dinging and went over and saw all these messages saying, ‘There’s something really wrong with Dalyce. Go in, go into her office and check on her,’” Dalyce said.
Her husband ran to her side and called 911. With help from the 911 dispatcher, he started chest compressions.
Dr. Ben Bobrow, Emergency Medicine physician with McGovern Medical School at UT Health Houston and Memorial Hermann, said most cardiac arrest patients can die within minutes because bystanders don’t do CPR.
“The main thing is that initial link in the chain of survival happens because without that, by the time paramedics get there, often there’s little for them to do,” Bobrow said.
If you’re anywhere when someone passes out, Bobrow said jump in with chest compressions. If the person is not in cardiac arrest, they’ll wake up, you will not hurt them.
Dalyce’s husband maintained the compressions for almost 10 minutes until EMS arrived. Doctors said she would not have survived without it.
“We’re always on the side of immense gratitude for how it transpired and the fact that I’m still here,” Dalyce said.
In addition to CPR, AEDs are on the wall of most public workplaces, airports and malls. They’re usually mounted in plain sight.
The machines have a recording that will begin talking once you power it on. It will walk you through how to use the device, and it will not shock someone unless it detects a reason to do so. In other words, you can’t hurt someone by using it, you can only help them.