Cardiac arrest survivor: Life as a one-percenter

Cardiac arrest survivor: Life as a one-percenter

My rescuers saved my life and with this action they also impacted many more people than they could have ever possibly imagined

I am your one in 100 save. A one-percenter.

In 2011, at the age of 42, I had a sudden cardiac arrest while running around Lake Merritt in Oakland, Calif. I was about 20 minutes into a two-hour run when I collapsed.

To my great fortune, another runner right next to me reached out to help break my fall as I went down. He yelled for help and three other bystanders quickly came to render CPR and call 911.

Oakland Fire Department personnel arrived minutes later to take over CPR, put in an airway and assemble the bag-valve mask as they got me on the cardiac monitor. The paramedics arrived shortly after. With V-fib on the heart monitor, I was shocked with 200 joules, which resulted in an intermittent pulse as I went in and out of ventricular tachycardia for an additional two minutes and then finally back to ventricular fibrillation. I was shocked again resulting in a reasonably organized and stable sinus rhythm and spontaneous breathing.

The paramedics continued post-resuscitation care until arrival at the hospital. Once at the hospital, the ER personnel took over and I was put in therapeutic hypothermia for 24 hours.

1 IN 100 SURVIVE SUDDEN CARDIAC ARREST

Nationally, I have learned, 93 sudden cardiac arrest patients will die before you can even get them to a hospital. This is despite your best efforts. Only seven in 100 patients will arrive alive and most of those will have varying degrees of anoxic brain injury, ranging from the permanently comatose to just clinically relevant anoxic brain injury.

However, don't underestimate the value of even that. I have met a lot of sudden cardiac arrest survivors. Many of whom have some degree of anoxic brain injury, only a few don't. Despite the additional challenges in life that come with anoxic brain injury, I know how much they all love their lives and I know their deep gratitude for being saved by their rescuers.

Finally, only one in 100 sudden cardiac arrest patients will join me in the one percent club, ultimately able to return to their normal lives with sub-clinical or no brain injury at all.

MORE LIVING MEANS EVERYTHING TO ME

Thanks to someone like you, I am here to tell my story of being one in 100. It's been more than five years since I was snatched from the jaws of death and this means quite literally everything to me.

Everything that I see, like the beautiful sunsets from my back deck, I get to see because of my rescuers.

Everything that I hear, like my nephew giggling, I get to hear because of my rescuers.

Everything that I get to taste, like Little Star Pizza in San Francisco, and smell like the unique smells of the forest in Sequoia National Park, I get to experience because of my rescuers.

Every emotion that I get to feel, like love and amazement, every thought and every experience that I get to have, are all gifts that my rescuers have bestowed upon me.

This is the life that I get to keep living because of you, my first responders.

MORE LIVING TO HELP OTHERS

And yet, it's not just my life that you have impacted.

It's my new marriage that you made possible. My wife and I are deeply in love, thanks to people like you. My favorite part of my day is the sensory experience of waking up next to my love each morning.

You made it possible for me to continue my work as a mental health therapist. So it's all of the lives that I have helped and a few that I may have even been able to save myself. What ripple effects will move through the lives of my patients as they grow up and have families of their own?

I'm also a clinical supervisor, responsible for supporting and training mental health interns to give their best to the school children that receive our therapeutic support. How far out will that ripple go? How many more lives will I impact as I grow older? My rescuers saved my life, and with this action they also impacted many more people than they could have ever possibly imagined.

WHO IS YOUR 1 IN 100?

I also know and appreciate that one in 100 from a first responder's perspective can be dispiriting. I feel that.

However, one life is not just one life. In my case, it's my life and every life that I will impact over time multiplied by an incalculable factor. Thanks to first responders like you, I have got many more years to live. I am able to further contribute to the world and experience wonderful and profound things.

When will your one in 100 save come? Who will it be? What will they be able to contribute to society and for how much longer because of you? These things cannot be known. You just have to do your best, let the rest sort itself out and trust that that is good enough.

Thank you.

Posted by William.G.King Jul 18, 2019 at 10:15 AM

Congrats on the good fortune to be a one percent’er. I too am grateful to be in your club. Two months ago I had just finished a CrossFit workout when I suddenly went into Ventricular Fibrillation leading to complete Cardiac Arrest. I lost consciousness and the next thing I remember is waking up in the emergency room at a nearby hospital. To my incredibly good fortune an emergency room doctor was in the gym and immediately applied a manual resuscitator followed by shocks from a defibrillator. I was later told that less than 7 percent of people survive an incident like this. I had an ICD implanted and am now able to resume being a gym rat. I echo all of your sentiments of gratitude and forever thanks to the ER doctor that saved my life.