It is my pleasure to nominate Ron Servicky for the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation’s People Saving People award. Ron showed incredible strength and courage when his mother collapsed while eating lunch with her husband in the kitchen of their Charlotte, NC home on November 8, 2011.
Helen Servicky stopped breathing and suddenly slumped over in her chair at the table. Her husband witnessed the arrest and yelled for the couple’s son, Ron to help.
Ron, a location manager for a national television show, was not supposed to be in town that day—however filming had wrapped early that week, and he just happened to be at home. He ran to help his father, and the two men got Helen onto the floor. Ron started giving her rescue breaths while his dad called 911, then passed the phone to Ron. It was an incredibly emotional situation, with both men doing their best to get Helen back.
Ron had not been formally trained in CPR since he was a child in the boy scouts decades ago. He stayed on the phone with the 911 dispatcher who talked him through chest compressions until first responders got there. Ron performed compressions for several minutes, and says afterward he remembers slumping into a corner and watching in awe as the Mecklenburg EMS Agency (Medic) crew work to save his mother’s life.
Helen’s pulse returned before transport to the hospital even began, and she has made a complete recovery. In April 2012, Helen, her husband and Ron were all reunited with the 911 dispatcher and Medic crew who worked together to save her life that day. Ron says the dispatcher, Kim, was his guardian angel that day and kept him going during an extremely stressful situation.
On the 911 call, after the Medic crew left the home with Helen and was heading to the hospital, you can hear a first responder tell Ron “If she survives, it’s because of what you did.” It is because of his quick actions that his mother is still alive today. She is a loving, quick-witted woman who says heaven just wasn’t ready yet for a woman like her. Her story of survival has inspired many, and will soon be featured on a national TV show to highlight the importance of people learning bystander CPR.
Ron kept the chain of survival intact without hesitation. His actions were selfless and he doesn’t hesitate to tell people the importance of learning CPR. It is for these countless reasons that he deserves to be recognized for the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation’s People Saving People award.
Nominated by Helen Servicky , Charlotte, NC