JEANNIE’S STORY
“I’m going to die…If they lie me down, I know I’m not waking up.”
Those were the thoughts that passed through Jeannie’s head as she struggled to breathe on her mother’s bathroom floor. On an evening after recovering from leg surgery, a pulmonary embolism took her to the narrow crossroads of life and death.
Betty, her mother, was downstairs as the attack began. Jeannie says the sudden exhaustion quickly turned to her eyes rolling and spinning—a fact confirmed by her mother’s partner, Renee, who was nearby. With only microseconds to respond, Renee jumped into action.
“I remember the whole thing as if I were speaking to her,” says Jeannie. “But she told me I didn’t say a word.”
She was motioning for her belongings and that she was having trouble breathing. Although she wasn’t communicating, Renee understood Jeannie’s body language and with a bit of natural intuition, called for Betty to grab Jeannie’s purse. Betty soon became aware of the event and quickly called 911.
As the paramedics arrived, Jeannie says the blackouts had begun. She was going in and out of consciousness, but remained audibly aware of her situation.
“I remember them wanting to lie me down. I was fading in and out as they took me through the kitchen and into the ambulance.”
She remembers seeing her mom’s tears and hearing her sister’s screams as she was placed in the back of the emergency vehicle. On that ambulance, Jeannie would once again dip out of consciousness, something she recalls happening three times over the course on the evening.
“I thought I was going to die,” she says. “I knew if I went under one more time, I wasn’t waking up.” Luckily, Jeannie did wake up, in the hospital—weak, groggy, and sore.
“The only thing that hurt was my sternum. It was broken. That’s how I knew they’d used CPR to save me.”
Jeannie’s embolism had wrapped around her heart and enlarged her lungs beyond typical size. By all accounts, she should have died. As a result of gasping and fighting for oxygen, her lungs had become swollen.
“The doctor’s told me I should’ve been a goner,” Jeannie says. Her CT scans revealed a level of growth in her lungs that means certain death.
So, how did she survive?
She says the alignment of the right action at the right time saved her life. “The CPR broke up the embolism enough for blood flow to reach my heart. That’s when I would have consciousness. When it would re-clot, I began to suffocate and struggle to breathe.”
While in the ambulance, Jeannie was given oxygen, but struggled to find breath and even lost a heartbeat. The first responders CPR—the training that they and many other every day heroes have—was used to bring Jeannie back to life every time she drifted out of awareness.
As her recovery from the embolism began, she remembers the feeling from her chest: “Every time I would try to breathe, it felt like someone was ripping at my chest,” she says, “but I know that without them doing that—without them giving me CPR—I wouldn’t be here right now.”
The road to recovery has been successful. Jeannie says she has hints of anxiety when entering the bathroom in her mother’s home, but says it fades after a moment. The symptoms of a pulmonary embolism are something she says she wishes she had known more about.
“If I’d known more of what to look for, I would’ve been more aware of needing help.”
To learn more about those symptoms, check this article.
Jeannie’s life was saved by the quick, trained actions of her mother Betty, Renee, and the emergency responders. Without them, the lives of many wouldn’t be the same as they are today. You never know when you may be face to face with the chance to save someone’s life. The moment, much like Betty and Renee’s, may find you, even at home.
To learn more about getting your CPR certification and becoming a hero in someone’s life, get started here.