Stories

John Turco, a teacher at Neil McNeil High School, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while playing basketball. Due to the quick actions of his friends who started CPR and used an AED, he is alive to tell his story.

On Monday, October 26, 2020, I suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. 

I was in our garage at home, when I started to feel uncomfortable in the chest/abdomen and decided I better get back in our house. Suddenly the discomfort in my chest area intensified and I was sweating profusely. 

My daughter Katie immediately recognized my distress and called 911, and then went to my office and grabbed our home AED. For the next five minutes I sat in an enlarging pool of my own sweat with sharp stabbing pain right behind my sternum. I started to hyperventilate, and my arm became numb and started to spasm.

The paramedics arrived in under five minutes. The ambulance doors had not yet closed when they defibrillated me and I opened my eyes and could see my wife standing there, a horrifying look on her face. I smiled and gave her a thumbs up as they closed the doors. 

The first cardiac arrest happened fast, within 10 minutes from the start of symptoms. Due to quick CPR and defibrillation, I was brought back to life. If I had stayed dead for another few minutes, I would not have survived.

On the way to the hospital, I knew I was at a high risk of a cardiac arrest occurring again. I closed my eyes and surrounded myself with images of all the people in my life whom I loved. At the hospital they inserted a metal stent into my coronary artery.

Witnessing this event came at a big emotional cost for my family. My wife and daughter witnessed a sequence of events that no loved ones should ever see. Their speedy actions saved me but I’m not sure they will ever get over it. We did have an AED in our home but never had to use it.  I survived because my family recognized that I was in distress, acted quickly to called 911, and our first responders showed up as planned. 

You have an obligation to yourself, your family and everyone you support to stay alive!  Learn CPR and get an AED. 

 CARE member Harriet poses with a phone booth converted to an outdoor AED cabinet in Ireland. In some areas theses AED's are connected into their emergency dispatch system that alerts the dispatcher when an AED is removed. Look forward to seeing something like this in Canada some day!

Dan Shire suffered a cardiac arrest in 2013. Here is his story.