09/19/2025
THIS!
It was all in the timing. She didn't hesitate and with immediate CPR she was able to continue oxygenation to his brain that kept his brain function intact until the paramedics arrived with the AED and necessary drugs to regain his normal heart rhythm.
Beth Padron found her husband Luis crumpled on the bathroom floor. "Call 911!" she screamed to her daughters.
Beth dropped to the floor to see if Luis was breathing. He wasn't. With coaching from the 911 operator, she started pumping on his chest. Although she felt his ribs break, Beth kept going.
Within minutes, paramedics arrived. For 30 minutes, they shocked him multiple times with an automated external defibrillator, or AED, and gave him epinephrine before his heart started beating again.
Paramedics put a tube in Luis' throat to help him breathe. To help reduce permanent brain damage, doctors lowered his body temperature, a treatment called therapeutic hypothermia.
Two days after his cardiac arrest, Luis opened his eyes. Doctors removed his breathing tube. He was still groggy from being sedated. "My beautiful wife," he said to Beth, his voice quiet and scratchy.
Physically, Luis was OK, but he did have some short-term memory loss. He never learned why he’d gone into cardiac arrest at age 50.
Nine days after Luis collapsed, he went home with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, or ICD, that would shock his heart if it ever stopped again. By the time Luis returned to his job as a software engineer in the next month, his short-term memory had returned to normal.
Now, Luis often thinks about how he wouldn't be alive if it weren't for his wife's quick action. The Padrons are planning a CPR training session for their extended family.
"I always envisioned if I needed to use CPR, it would be some random person in the street," Beth said. "Not in my house and not my husband. From the minute we arrived at the hospital, everyone told me I saved his life.
“Everyone needs to learn CPR."
