Salt Lake City, UT -- (ReleaseWire) -- 06/30/2020 --Aubrey Sessions is a pediatric nurse who works on the Intermountain Riverton Hospital's children's unit. Thanks to her nursing background and a recent adult CPR refresher course she'd completed at the hospital – just days before – she was able to act quickly when a concrete worker collapsed while working at her home on May 28.
Sessions was on her way to take the workers a drink on that hot day, when she saw Jay Miles lying in the wet concrete.
"I checked his vital signs. He had no pulse. He wasn't breathing," Sessions recalled.
"I started chest compressions, while my husband spoke with 911. My mind was clear. Instructions from our recent mock-code training — and other trainings I've attended throughout my nursing career — ran through my mind," she added.
"A lot of little miracles happened that day, that put several people in place to help Jay right when he needed it," said Sessions.
The first one was that she was at home and not at work. The second one was that Sessions received the CPR refresher course as part of cross training that Intermountain's pediatric nurses were receiving in case they were called upon to treat adult patients in the event of a COVID-19 patient surge.
And the third and fourth were that two other trained people were nearby and able to assist. A neighbor who was driving by offered to help while Sessions was giving chest compressions to Miles.
"The neighbor's wife is a nurse, and she ran three doors down to help, even though she was 39 weeks pregnant, and offered to take over doing compressions," said Sessions. She let her help, thinking she'd trade-off with her.
An off-duty Draper City fire commissioner had taken a wrong turn on his way to a meeting, and happened to be driving by just minutes after Sessions started CPR.
"He ran to us with a bag mask and took over compressions from my pregnant friend while I bagged and ventilated," said Sessions.
An EMS crew arrived a few minutes later and took over. By the time they loaded him into the ambulance, Miles had a pulse and his heart was in a regular rhythm.
"We thought he maybe had a heart attack, but it turned out he had an arrythmia," Sessions said. Miles was later discharged from Intermountain Medical Center in Murray after having a pacemaker placed.
"My cardiologist told me only five percent of people who have an event like this end up surviving, because they don't have CPR started quickly. And so, I'm very, very lucky to be alive," said Miles.
Statistics show that the earlier CPR is initiated, the greater the chances of survival. In fact, the American Heart Association estimates that 100,000 to 200,000 lives of adults and children could be saved each year if CPR were performed early enough.
Sessions says the story didn't end there. Her neighbor, the other nurse who helped with chest compressions, went into labor later that night and delivered a healthy baby boy.
Intermountain Healthcare is a not-for-profit system of 24 hospitals, 215 clinics, a Medical Group with 2,500 employed physicians and advanced practice clinicians, a health insurance company called SelectHealth, and other health services in Idaho, Utah, and Nevada. Intermountain is widely recognized as a leader in transforming healthcare by using evidence-based best practices to consistently deliver high-quality outcomes and sustainable costs. For more information, see intermountainhealthcare.org.