CPR on the Golf Course

ON THE GOLF COURSE Ralph Harms, 78, was playing golf with his son Joe and friend Doug Green on July 30, 2013. After a great shot at the fourth hole, Ralph remembers hollering, “Yeah, baby.” The next thing he remembers is waking up in the hospital three days later. Ralph had collapsed on the course in full cardiac arrest just seconds after that great shot. Though he says he was familiar with the signs and symptoms of a heart attack, “cardiac arrest is like walking up to a light switch and just turning it off,” he says. “There was no warning.”

About four years prior, Ralph and Joe were watching a football game together on T.V. When a commercial about CPR came on, Ralph asked his son if he was certified. The elder Harms had taken Red Cross CPR classes every two years for decades in order to keep his CPR certification active. His son had not yet done the same, and Ralph recalls getting on the floor to show Joe the proper way to do chest compressions.

“It’s a good thing Joe remembered—or I wouldn’t be here,” Ralph says. While his friend Doug called 9-1-1 with a cell phone, Joe began CPR. With paramedics en route, Ralph’s heart started and stopped three times. All the while, Joe continued chest compressions.

Ralph miraculously survived and spent three days in a drug-induced coma. Ralph knows it was his friend and son’s efforts and the CPR know-how that contributed to his survival. For that reason he shares his story.

CPR save stories can happen at work, at home, at the recreation center or even in China.