Ontario woman survives cardiac arrest in NYC, thanks to stepson’s CPR

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Brampton physical education teacher Lindsay McAudrum is lucky to be alive.

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While the 41-year-old woman from Rockwood, about 80 kilometers northwest of Toronto, was riding her bike through New York's Central Park on June 15 with her family, she went into cardiac arrest and had no pulse for 30 minutes.

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Dr. Dan Pugliese, her doctor at New York's Mount Sinai Morningside Hospital, credits her recovery to the fact that her 17-year-old stepson Maddox immediately performed CPR on her.

“That's why you can talk to her now,” said Pugliese, a specialist in heart rhythm disorders.

“CPR is critical to maintaining blood flow. Essentially, it squeezes the outside of the heart and pumps blood around the body, and in short, the brain is able to get enough blood flow to keep the brain intact.”

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The rest of the situation was dire, with McOdrum given a 10% chance of survival on the way to hospital as paramedics tased her five times in hopes of resuscitating her. She had also been tasered by Central Park EMS twice before.

TOOK YOUR LAST BREATH

“I kind of took my last breath and was foaming at the mouth,” said McAudrum, who happened to be in New York while attending her nine-year-old son Tommy's hockey tournament in New Jersey.

“They really thought I was having a seizure. So (my husband) immediately called for help, and then they realized I wasn't actually breathing. I was like dead,” added McAudrum, whose treatment was covered by OHIP.

“My Angel”

“And then Maddox, my stepson, started doing CPR. He told my husband, “Okay, we need to do CPR, we need to start it.” The most amazing thing is that last week he took CPR training to work as a camp counselor,” she added. “What are the odds? It was crazy. He's like my angel.”

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An elementary school teacher said that a doctor and a nurse who accidentally found themselves in Central Park, took over CPR another six minutes before the Central Park Ambulance arrived.

After arriving at the hospital, medical staff, who was in a coma, put McOdrum on a ventilator and her parents and brother were advised to travel to say goodbye.

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“My family flew out that night because they weren’t sure if I would survive the night,” McAudrum said. “It's a miracle I'm alive.”

It turns out McOdrum had some earlier symptoms – which she ignored. She had to pause her daily runs because she was out of breath, she felt tired while teaching, and just days earlier she felt pain in her shoulder while watching her son's hockey tournament.

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“We have to be mindful of those times when things go wrong,” Pugliese said. “Young people are much more willing to say: “No, I’m young, I’m healthy. I'm fine. Let me just push through.”

Five days later in the hospital, McOdrum began to improve and a cardiac MRI revealed she had an irregular heartbeat associated with an undetected weakening of the heart muscle, which ultimately led to heart failure and cardiac arrest.

Cardiologists performed an emergency procedure and installed a defibrillator in her heart – a device that delivers a shock when necessary to ensure the normal rhythm of the organ.

FLEW HOME FROM THE NURSE

After 12 days in the hospital, McOdrum was able to fly home on a commercial flight, accompanied by a nurse.

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“Sudden cardiac death is quite rare overall, it’s about one in 1,000 in the U.S.,” Pugliese said.

“But most of these people will have serious known cardiovascular disease. They tend to be older, they tend to have other health problems – high blood pressure, high cholesterol, diabetes and the like,” he said. “So overall, it's a pretty rare thing for a young, otherwise healthy person who exercises regularly and has no real health problems to, for lack of a better term, drop dead.”

Right now, McOdrum walks about eight kilometers every day and trains with light weights, with plans to return to work in January.

“One thing I've learned is if there's something you're not sure about, go get it checked because you never know,” she said. “And more people should be trained in CPR.”

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