Survivor to Celebrate 85th Birthday March 17th
On January 16, 2007, my 84-year-old husband, Jerome Liebowitz, who had suffered a massive heart attack and six by-pass surgery in 2000, plus an attack of congestive heart failure in 2001, went into sudden cardiac arrest as we were sitting in our kitchen talking. I could see his body shudder and his head drop, his mouth fall open and his eyes open with no life in them.
I called 9-1-1. The operator asked for my address. She then told me to place my ear to his mouth to find out whether or not he was breathing. He was not. I was told to take him out of the chair he was in a place him on the floor. I managed to do that. I was told to open his mouth to see if there were any obstructions. There were none. I was told how to place my hands and give him 400 compressions. I had taken CPR classes 30 years previously, so I understood exactly what I was being told. And even though I had the course, without the operator's help, I never would have thought to do CPR.
At this point my husband's face was purple/blue. He looked like a dead person. I began the compressions. After 140 he made a noise. After another 10 compressions he made another noise. The operator told me to breath two times into his mouth and do 100 compressions. I did this three or four times, when she asked me if my front door was open. I ran to open it. The police came in, cut off my husband's clothing, and used their defibrillator. After two or three tries, my husband began to breath. He was comotose. He was taken to the local hospital, where he was intubated.
At first, the doctors thought he was severely brain damaged as he was making non-purposeful movements. He was transferred to the cardiac ICU and I was allowed to remain with him, throughout the day and night. It is my belief that even though someone is in a coma that person can somehow sense and perhaps hear the voices of loved ones. The entire family was allowed in his room, and we all spoke to him. His granddaughters whom he teases teased him exactly as he teases them. The next night, he began to come out of the coma.
Within the next week, he was slowly coming back to his own self. He had no physical or neurological problems.
During that week the police who had come to the house, came back to the house to find out how my husband was doing. They told me that when they got to him, he had no pulse, no heartbeat, but that my compressions kept the blood moving in his body.
On January 25, he had a defibrillator/pacemaker installed. On January 27th he came home from the hospital and given the prescription medication Amiodorone along with his other heart medications.
Today, he seems to be back to pretty much his old self, upset that he is not allowed to shovel snow, chop ice, drink a beer once in a while or drive. Other than that our life goes on as usual.
On March 17, he will celebrate his 85th birthday.
- Eleanor Liebowitz, Ph.D.