Keith White, Cincinnati, OH – 52 at the time of event (September 18, 2004)
I was an active field hockey coach and I was attending a dinner dance to celebrate the 60th anniversary of our church, Immaculate Heart of Mary, when I suddenly collapsed in front of the band. My wife called for help and an off-duty firefighter, Assistant Chief Tom Riemar, who also happened to be present at the dance was summoned. He performed CPR (cardiopulmonary resuscitation) for about five minutes, together with some nurses who were also at the dinner dance.
One of the church staff members noticed the firefighter performing CPR and asked what was going on. He revealed that I was in SCA (sudden cardiac arrest) and was awaiting the Life Squad. She told him that the church had just received an AED (automated external defibrillator). He asked her to fetch it and then he used the AED to shock me to bring me back to life.
After that, the Life Squad arrived and took me to the hospital. En route, they told me that I was very lucky to be alive and it was a good thing there was an AED in the building, since it would have been too late for them to save me.
I’m very blessed to be alive to tell my story. And I’m very grateful to Assistant Chief Riemar for saving my life and Sister Carole Tiemming for insisting on having an AED installed.
Now, I’m a volunteer with the local chapter of the American Heart Association and Project Heart Restart and I give talks about the importance of installing AEDs in all public places.
My miracle story was headlined in The Cincinnati Enquirer and local TV stations. We need this lifesaving AED device to be installed everywhere to save more lives from SCA.