For a Langley senior, he was saved by “angels” who performed CPR. Wilf Driedger believes that he would not be around if not for the rapid action of 2 strangers.
It was pure fate
Luck, fate and the heroic efforts of Maryrose McConnell and Dave Patrick who Wilf calls “angels” were responsible for saving his life. The 70-year old man would not be alive today to walk his dog and continue with his passion for building models.
On the day of the incident, Wilf collapsed near his Murrayville home while walking his dog Toffee. He suffered a cardiac arrest and could not recall the incident. He woke up at Royal Columbian Hospital a week later.
It was purely serendipity that Wilf was outside when his heart ceased to beat and not alone inside his house. It was also pure fate the McConnell was quick to wade through the crowd of onlookers to help.
McConnell was home at the time and ran out to her car to grab something. She saw people standing around a man and went over to check. Upon reaching the man, she realized that he did not have a pulse and turning blue.
No one had training and did not know what to do, so she started compressions on him. She was performing the compressions for up to 2 minutes. It was a coincident when her boss’s husband was driving by and saw her and pulled over.
Davy (Patrick) is a firefighter and off duty at that time. When he stopped at the scene, he took over with the compressions until the arrival of the ambulance. Despite the efforts of Patrick and McConnell, Wilf’s prognosis was not a good one.
A specialist at RCH informed Wilf that he shouldn’t be alive and there should be some damage to the lungs or the brain. Wilf relies on a defibrillator pacemaker which delivers a shock if his heart stops. He believes that he would have died if not for the actions of the 2 people who helped him.
Rapid thinking to save a life with CPR
Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) is a life-saving skill that increases the chances of survival of an individual during emergencies. Once the heart ceases to beat, timely delivery of CPR can help improve the outcome until emergency care can be provided.
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LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a CPR course and for more information, check out these sources:
https://www.healthline.com/health/first-aid/cpr
https://www.webmd.com/first-aid/cardiopulmonary-resuscitation-cpr-treatment
https://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-conditions/sudden-cardiac-arrest/symptoms-causes/syc-20350634