A quick-witted nurse waiting to board her flight saved a fellow passenger’s life when she noticed two distinct signs he was suffering a heart attack, WBTV reported.
On the morning of June 7, Claire Cerbie was waiting for her flight to Knoxville, TN at North Carolina’s Charlotte Douglas International Airport when she noticed that 57-year-old Ken Jeffries was showing two distinct symptoms of a heart attack.
When Jeffries and Cerbie met again for a joint interview with WBTV, the registered nurse explained how she knew Jeffries was struggling.
“Just the way that you were snoring and breathing sounded like you were having a heart attack based on what I’ve seen before,” Cerbie explained.
She immediately rushed to Jeffries’ aid and summoned a group of good samaritans to aid her in providing CPR and producing a defibrillator from an airport medic. “We put the pads on him,” Cerbie said. “It indicated a shockable rhythm, and it shocked him in between while we were doing compressions.”
It took 10 minutes of steady work from Cerbie and her volunteers before Jeffries regained his pulse. He was rushed to the Atrium Health Carolinas Medical Center, where cardiologist William Downey, of the Sanger Heart & Vascular Institute, performed a life-saving procedure.
Downey later asserted that Jeffries certainly would have died if not for Cerbie’s intervention.
“It’s a miracle that I was at that place at that time when it happened and the people around me are there,” Jeffries reflected. “A ‘thank you’ is not enough, Claire,” he told his hero. “Thank you for what you did. I am so appreciative and indebted to you.”
“I’m very glad that I was there that day to help you out,” Cerbie told him. “I’d obviously do it again in a heartbeat. I’m so happy to see that you’re doing so well.”
Alarmingly, Jeffries noticed no signs or symptoms before his heart attack. Downey reiterated that the best way to prevent heart attacks is by controlling one’s blood pressure; optimizing cholesterol; not smoking; undertaking regular exercise; and adopting a Mediterranean diet.
After saving Jeffries’ life, American Airlines bumped Cerbie up to first class for her heroic efforts.
