News & Articles

Alaska Dispatch News
Author: Beth Bragg

"...Jodi wouldn't be here if it weren't for Keith.

She owes her life to the 12 minutes of lifesaving chest compressions he gave her three years ago when she collapsed from sudden cardiac arrest while she and Keith were raking the yard of their Eagle River home.

"When I first turned around I thought she was sleeping in the yard," Keith said. "I said, 'What are you doing, laying down in the sun?' She just looked so relaxed. She had the rake in her hand and she was laying there really peacefully.

"I shook her and she didn't wake up. I opened up her eyes. Being a hunter I know what dead animals look like, and that's what she looked like."

Keith called 911 on his cellphone. He was connected to an Anchorage Fire Department dispatcher who spent the next 12 minutes providing instruction and encouragement as Keith performed hands-only CPR. His efforts allowed Jodi's heart to keep pumping oxygenated blood to her organs until medics arrived..."

Read the full story here:
https://www.adn.com/sports/running/2017/04/20/an-eagle-river-man-thought-he-had-plenty-of-time-to-learn-cpr-then-his-wife-collapsed-in-their-yard/