Posted by New 6 at 9 Health Published: February 9, 2022 at 9:03 AM on Oct 16th 2023

Saving women from the #1 killer: Why CPR more than doubles your chance at life

More than 350,000 cardiac arrests outside the hospital happen each year, and 90% don’t survive

Celebrating another year of life is something Jenylyn Carpio does not take for granted. That’s because in 2005, she almost died.

“I was 22 years old when I became a new mom. I was a new wife. And I was a college student,” said Carpio.

Carpio was visiting her mother Jocelyn with her then two-month-old daughter when she decided to take a nap.

“And next thing I remember... my mom frantically pumping at my chest, yelling at me to wake up,” said Carpio. “A police officer was shining a light in my eyes and my mom had said that, ‘You just experienced-- a sudden cardiac arrest’.”

Jocelyn was trained in CPR, but she never expected that she would use it to save her own daughter’s life. About 90% of people who suffer out-of-hospital cardiac arrests die, but performing CPR more than doubles someone’s chance of survival.

At the hospital, doctors discovered Carpio had an undiagnosed genetic heart condition that can cause irregular heart rhythms - putting her at risk for sudden cardiac death. Surgeons implanted a defibrillator in her to detect and shock her heart when abnormal and dangerous heart rhythms are detected. Since then, she has now had four defibrillator replacement surgeries, the most recent in 2020.

Now, Carpio is living a near-normal life and using lessons learned from her own experience to bring awareness to sudden cardiac arrest and the importance of CPR.

“What I would like other people to know in regards to sudden cardiac arrest is it can happen at any time to anybody. And that knowing CPR is a life-saving skill. And that is why I’m here today.”

American Red Cross CPR Training

American Heart Association

CPR Orlando

Orlando Fire Department CPR Training

American Safety & Health Institute

YMCA of Central Florida Lifeguard certification classes include CPR training