Tommy Frongillo: Three Students. Three Actions. One Life Saved.
Tommy Frongillo was moving into the University of Mississippi on August 17, 2025, for his freshman year when he experienced a sudden cardiac arrest. Three students he had just met that day helped save his life—one called 911, one started CPR, and another found an AED. Call. Push. Shock. was perfectly executed, and Tommy has made a full recovery. Today, he is back at the University of Mississippi… Read More
Todd Welch: When Every Second Mattered
On August 9, 2025, our lives changed forever. We were enjoying a family vacation at the Jersey Shore when Todd decided to spend the afternoon surfing at the Atlantic City inlet, a spot known for its larger waves. Earlier that day he mentioned feeling short of breath, but the feeling passed, and neither of us imagined what was about to happen. As he paddled out, he asked if I'd come down to the… Read More
Kayla Burt: The Team Effort That Saved Her Life
Kayla Burt BSN, RN, CPN has been a pediatric nurse at Seattle Children's Hospital for nearly 10 years. Prior to this, she worked at a non-profit specializing in sudden cardiac arrest awareness and education, coached college basketball at the University of Portland, and served as an EMT for many years in King County. Kayla is a 2006 graduate of the University of Washington where she earned a BA… Read More
An unexpected event leads to a strong dose of gratitude
Robby Klaber has always been exceptionally active, challenging himself consistently with intense marathons and biking experiences. He ran the Miami Marathon in 2012, ran the San Francisco Half Marathon in 2013, and even biked from Providence, Rhode Island to Seattle, Washington to raise money and awareness for Habitat for Humanity. However, when running in the Chicago Marathon in October 2014,… Read More
Keep your head above water
The weather that Sunday was beautiful and I was excited to go to the KROC Center in Camden, NJ for my weekly swim. I said goodbye to my son and headed off to the pool. A long-distance swimmer at the time, my typical routine was to swim for about an hour, covering two and a half kilometers. Given my age of 53, I felt good about my physical health and stamina. As I pushed through the first… Read More
The focus is to pay it forward
Today, Christmas Day 2022, marks 10 years since Johnnie Davis’ life-changing sudden cardiac arrest. In the early morning of December 25, 2012, Johnnie Davis was sound asleep at home when around three in the morning, he began shaking and convulsing as he went into sudden cardiac arrest. Noticing that he was not responding, Johnnie’s wife Rachel, a former nursing student, immediately switched on… Read More
Advice from a cardiac arrest survivor: Be kind. Give yourself time and permission to heal.
When 30-year-old Katrysha Gellis headed off to work at a graphic design agency on October 16, 2015, she never expected it to be a day that would change her life forever. It was a typical day. She focused on her work as usual and did not suspect anything out of the ordinary. But that’s the thing about sudden cardiac arrest—it can happen when someone least expects it, with no warning at all. As… Read More
Ed Kosiec: A survivor on a mission to save more lives
“We have to have more people with compassion for each other when a situation happens and be willing to help.” These are the words of Ed Kosiec, a survivor of cardiac arrest with an amazing story. On March 12, 2019, 51-year-old Ed had a typical morning: he trained for his fourth marathon, running 10 miles, and then did some hot yoga. That afternoon, he and his wife Holly went to Chick-Fil-A for a… Read More
Seth's story
Seth was a junior at Broadwater High School in Townsend, Montana, when he collapsed in cardiac arrest during basketball practice in January 2021. This is his story. Courtesy of Montana EMS and Trauma Systems Section of Department of Health & Human Services