Patrick and Melissa Mulhern certainly know the importance of knowing how to perform CPR.
Back in the early evening of April 15, the Mulherns were at their Academy Gardens home, making plans to grab McDonald’s for dinner.
Suddenly, Melissa, a healthy 40-year-old at the time who had worked earlier that day, began making strange noises, as if in distress, and soon lost consciousness. Patrick called 911 and her parents, who live on the same block of Treaty Road.
Patrick, thinking his wife was suffering a stroke, moved her from the couch onto the carpeted floor and began performing chest compressions. Neighbor Art Anderson, a 39th Police District sergeant, also came to the house to perform chest compressions.
Paramedics Jermel Bowen and Timothy Bullock, stationed that day at Frankford and Linden avenues, responded quickly, continuing the CPR and using an automated external defibrillator to successfully restart Melissa’s heart.
Medics monitored Melissa for 10 minutes before taking her to Jefferson Torresdale Hospital.
Melissa was hardly out of the woods, but was able to recover and go home after an eight-day hospital stay.
“She’s a fighter,” her husband said.
In the end, it was determined she had sudden cardiac arrest, caused by an undiagnosed heart arrhythmia. Statistics show that there is just an 8-percent survival rate for people with sudden cardiac arrest.
Melissa is alive because her husband performed chest compressions, allowing blood to continue to flow to the brain until medics arrived and were able to use an AED.
“He is my hero,” she said.
Due to the experience, the Mulherns wanted to host an event where people could be trained in CPR. They teamed with the office of City Councilman Bobby Henon to plan the event, which took place Sunday afternoon at Cannstatter’s.
Minutes Matter conducted the CPR classes. Anderson, Bowen and Bullock were on hand, along with the couple’s two children and other family members.
The day included a performance by Stranger Than Normal, recently named the WMGK house band. There were vendors and free food and beverages, along with raffles and activities for children.
Patrick Mulhern knew CPR from his days as a teenage lifeguard and when he worked at DuPont, where all employees were certified in CPR and AED use. Anderson knew CPR due to his job as a police sergeant.
Looking back, the Mulherns realize the seriousness of the trauma. Melissa has no memory of the incident. She was in the emergency room for eight hours and had a CT scan and brain MRI. She was later moved to ICU, but doctors gave her only a 10-percent chance of living a normal life.
But, less than 48 hours after the incident, she was taken off life support. Several days later, doctors knew she would make a full recovery. Melissa is thankful that her husband’s quick action prevented permanent damage.
“CPR not only saved my life, it kept me, me,” she said.
Melissa has a pacemaker and has to visit doctors a couple of times a year. She’ll be on medication the rest of her life, and joked that she’s been ordered only to not jump out of an airplane or drive with a CDL.
“I have no physical restrictions,” she said.
Melissa and Patrick thank the staff at Jefferson Torresdale’s ER, ICU and telemetry unit.
The Mulherns plan to become CPR instructors, and they note that Pennsylvania has a Good Samaritan Law that protects people using CPR and an AED from personal liability. ••
