How you can save a life
Today I want to share one of the most important lessons you’ll ever hear. It’s deeply personal and it has to do with how you can save a life.
(If you prefer—you can also watch the video version HERE.)
To be clear—I’m not a doctor. And I’m not a lifesaving expert.
I want to tell you my life-saving story because I’m a SURVIVOR. Specifically—I’m a choking, cardiac arrest, and CPR survivor.
This is my story.
On Valentine’s Day 2021, I nearly died on my kitchen floor.
I was preparing to grill a few gorgeous rib eye steaks. That’s the last thing I remember. What I now know is that, somehow, while grilling, I choked on a piece of that steak.
It’s important to understand that choking is like putting a big cork in your respiratory system. Your oxygen supply is cut off, and eventually, everything stops—including your heart. That’s what happened to me.
The heroes from the Wauwatosa Fire Department—Station 51, Crew 2—responded to my wife’s 911 call.
I had no pulse when they arrived. I was in a state of nonshockable cardiac arrest and was possibly moments away from being gone for good.
The first responders acted quickly. They managed to locate and remove the deeply lodged piece of steak. Miraculously, with my airway now open, my heart rebooted, and I was rushed to the local emergency room.
Some three hours later I became conscious in the emergency room to learn what happened.
I spent the following eight days in the hospital (the first four in the Intensive Care Unit) being monitored 24/7, breathing supplemental oxygen, hugging a pillow, coughing up red sludge, and receiving around-the-clock respiratory treatments. In the early evening of February 22, I was released and actually walked out of the hospital.
But there’s another part to the story—and it’s a critical part of the reason I’m a survivor today.
Not long before dinner, my daughter, Rachel, called to ask if she could stop by and bring her new boyfriend, Jake. Of course, my wife and I were delighted.
Fast forward an hour or so. I must have made my way to the bathroom when I started choking on the steak, because I returned to the kitchen with my hands on my throat—and everyone knew I was in big trouble.
That’s when Jake took immediate action.
Jake tried the Heimlich maneuver. That didn’t work. In hindsight, we know why. That piece of steak was way low and way deep—and it wasn’t going anywhere.
Eventually, I lost consciousness and went down on the kitchen floor. That’s when Jake BEGAN CPR ON THE SPOT. He continued until the paramedics arrived and took over.
Here’s the lesson I want to share with you.
Had Jake not taken swift and immediate action—I wouldn’t be here today. It’s just that simple.
That immediate CPR kept oxygenated blood pumping to my brain and vital organs until the paramedics could arrive and take over.
That makes me a poster boy for CPR.
It also makes me a living and breathing reminder for YOU.
LEARN CPR. Not just because your company or your school says you need to.
Learn—or relearn CPR knowing that someday, when you least expect it, you could save a life.
When I first learned CPR more than 40 years ago the approach seemed complicated and intimidating. I do what? When? And how often? How many breaths to how many compressions? Should I carry a respirator mask in my back pocket? I even trained to the point of being qualified to be a trainer. But it all seemed a bit overwhelming, and I remember privately hoping and praying that I would never have to try to remember.
Thanks to lots of research and best practices, the “how to” part of CPR is now much easier to remember—even if you are in a stressful situation.
So please, take a class. You can reach out to the American Heart Association or find a highly skilled local trainer.
They’ll teach you everything you need to know about how to help someone who is choking, in cardiac arrest, and more in a way that’s easy to remember.
Just pay attention, trust your training, and do what you’ve been taught to do. And if an AED is available—just turn it on and follow the voice prompts.
But here’s what I want you to remember most.
You probably know that survival rates following CPR can be low. But please don’t forget—when you take action and perform CPR while someone is in cardiac arrest—YOU can change the survival rate from NOTHING to SOMETHING.
And when someone is in cardiac arrest, SOMETHING—even imperfectly performed CPR—is 1,000 TIMES BETTER than NOTHING.
Because for someone in cardiac arrest, going from NOTHING to SOMETHING is EVERYTHING. It was for me.
Everyday people like you are the bridge between someone in trouble and the response of the EMS system. That often makes everyday people like you the linchpin between life and death.
There’s an aftermath to my story. Following my hospital stay, I returned home for a complicated recovery. The complicated part had to do with my mental health—and I was eventually diagnosed with PTSD or Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.
But through that messy, difficult, and complicated struggle, I learned some life-changing lessons—lessons I recently published in a book titled LIVE AGAIN! It’s a book I wrote to help other people who are going through their own messy, difficult, and complicated struggles.
Think about that. Someone who performed CPR on the spot, along with all the people involved in my rescue, made it possible for me to now help other people.
How amazing is that?
You need to know that someone else out there could have a story just like mine—and their rescuer could be YOU!
I may not know you personally—but here’s something I believe ABOUT you. I believe you’re a difference maker. That’s why you’re here—to make a difference in the lives of others.
Sometimes making a difference means being ready—and taking action in moments you don’t expect.
But when you help save a life, you not only help that person—you help everyone in THEIR lives. You help everyone who loves and cares about them. But that’s not all.
And you also help all the people THEY will help and bless and rescue for the rest of THEIR LIVES.
You can literally be the answer to someone else’s prayers. And you can make a difference—at that point in time—that no one else can make.
You can help someone else to LIVE AGAIN!
Thanks, my friend. I’m grateful for you.
Now go—and make a difference.
John Alan