Survival, Intertwined
This past Monday, May 11, marked six years since Will’s sudden cardiac arrest. In the wee hours of that morning, Kristin performed 10 minutes of CPR that kept him alive. Those 10 minutes changed our lives forever.
Obviously, this is a day that brings up a lot of emotions for our family. From the relief and joy of survival; to the reckoning of lasting trauma, it’s been a rollercoaster. In this month’s essay, both of us reflect on our intertwined experiences.
What The Heart?! Recognizing Cardiac Arrests, Heart Attacks, & Strokes
A Guide for Your Loved Ones We’ve created a guide for you to share to celebrate all things hearts – Valentine’s Day and American Heart Month. ? As a physician family, we always assumed that the doctor among us would handle any medical issues we encountered. As silly as it sounds in retrospect, we never […]
How To Be A Compassionate Clinician In One Easy Step
When we were in our late 20s, my husband, Will, got cancer. When he was 30, he got cancer again, unrelated to the first time. When he was 34, he died in his sleep, but I wouldn’t let him go. After his unexplained sudden cardiac arrest, Will ended up in the ICU, where a nurse […]
The Meaningful Thing that One Paramedic Did During My Husband’s Medical Emergency
This is Lieutenant Gregg. He is one of the first responders who helped us when my husband’s heart stopped beating in his sleep three years ago. On his way up the stairs to our bedroom, Lt. Gregg stopped briefly in the hallway. He made eye contact with our 8- and 5-year-old children in their beds […]
Lockdown, Love, and Life-Saving CPR: A Mother’s Day to Remember
I will never forget May 11, 2020; my husband will never remember. It was an out-of-body experience. Part of my brain was solely focused on what I needed to do. The other part was watching us from a third-person perspective while our life together flashed before my eyes. Stunned, I laced my fingers together, one […]
Roger
None of this was supposed to happen. We had vowed “in sickness and health,” but no one thinks they will have to cash in on that promise for decades. We assumed we would deal with that part when our hair had grayed, our skin had sagged, and we had built an entire life. Instead, we […]
The Night Telecommunicator-CPR Saved My Husband’s Life
On May 11, 2020, I woke up in the middle of the night to my 34-year-old husband dying in our bed. Of course, I didn’t know he was dying. There was no reason to assume that his perfectly healthy heart had suddenly stopped beating. I had never even heard of agonal breathing. I would never […]