Grandmother’s near-death experience includes CPR and Jesus

Grandmother’s near-death experience includes CPR and Jesus
As a local medical professional, Carol O’Driscoll is used to saving lives. But on Thursday, August 11 she needed saving.

“I thought I’d come out here in the yard to trim some roses back and I did that,” O’Driscoll said. “I looked down, I had about 20-30 fire ants. I must have stepped on a colony.”

O’Driscoll said a sense of impending doom took over her.

Thankfully, her granddaughter Faith came to her rescue.

“I did three sets of 30 compressions,” Faith Hanlon said. “Normally a full set of CPR is 30 compressions of five. Five sets of 30. Obviously, I didn’t have time to finish. Paramedics arrive. We leave the intensive stuff to the people with the expensive equipment.”

Faith learned CPR this past summer when she started work as a lifeguard at Frank Brown Park in Panama City Beach.

“Within two minutes of my call to her she came through and she found me pulseless and without a heartbeat,” O’Driscoll said.

9 out of 10 people who go into cardiac arrest outside of the hospital die.

CPR can double or triple the person’s chance of survival if performed within the first few minutes. Click here for a link to a video tutorial on how to give CPR.

“I did my job,” Hanlon said.

O’Driscoll didn’t know the next time she woke up she’d feel the most at peace she’d ever felt.

It was in the emergency room.

O’Driscoll said it was by the luck of God that everything lined up perfectly so she could be here to tell this story today.

“It was Jesus,” O’Driscoll said. “I don’t know if he actually spoke to me or if I just knew the words but it was a message of come or stay.”

15 hours later, O’Driscoll woke up in the ICU.

“It’s never really hit me what happened,” O’Driscoll’s granddaughter said. “So just to see her alive was great.”

Faith’s grandmother wanted to share an important message with the public.

“The greatest gift of love that you can give a family member is to know CPR.”