North Park resident Steve Cline went into sudden cardiac arrest last December and on Wednesday he and his wife, Annette Cline, met the first responders who helped save his life.
"This is such a treat to be able to be here and thank all you guys and most of all my wife for saving my life," Cline said.
The 70-year-old Cline was watching television when he suddenly stopped breathing. Annette dialed 911 and San Diego Fire-Rescue dispatcher Chris Cook took the call. He told her she had to start chest compressions immediately, something Annette had never done before. Because she weighs around 100 pounds, Annette was worried she would not be able to get her husband off of the couch to begin chest compressions.
"You said, 'You have to get him off of the sofa,'" Annette told Cook on Wednesday. "It was like any fear that I had, any of that, 'I don't know if I can do it,' you didn’t let me have that."
Cook still remembers taking the call.
"I could kind of hear her breathing and panicking, so at that point, right away at the beginning, I knew something serious was going on," he said. "I can’t really describe how amazing it is to meet somebody where I actually had a role in helping save their life."
The Clines credit Cook with helping save Steve's life.
"Thank you very much," Steve said to Cook. "For somebody who had never in their life taken a CPR class or tried CPR — you walked her right through it and saved my life, saved my brain."
Minutes after Annette started chest compressions, San Diego Fire-Rescue crews and Falck paramedics arrived and took Steve to the hospital. He was put in a medically induced coma, and woke up a few days later.
Paramedics were able to get a pulse on Steve before leaving the house, but he had effectively died before being revived. Today, Steve said he feels great and does not have any lasting medical damage.
"I don’t know that there’s a medical pathway for me to be alive and talking to you right now," he said.
Officials said Annette did the right thing — she jumped into action calling 911 and with the help of coaching was able to start chest compressions right away.
"That’s probably the most critical phase is making sure that somebody immediately starts compressions because the downtime, three minutes without chest compressions, without circulation, is pretty much detrimental," said San Diego Fire-Rescue Captain Jonathan Harris, who was one of the first on scene that day.
Steve and Annette are writing a book about their ordeal called “Then December 4th I Died.” Part of it includes a call to action for people to learn how to perform CPR. The city of San Diego’s Project Heart Beat initiative also aims to teach CPR and help raise funds to purchase automatic defibrillators.
