CPR, defibrillator save man's life after he collapses playing rec basketball

凯文·马库斯·米勒 joined a rec basketball league in Seattle to get more exercise, meet new people and balance out a life that had become too dominated by work.

第二场比赛开始几分钟, the 25-year-old was dribbling up the court when he went down on one knee.

然后他倒下了，失去了知觉.

Tim Kerns, 谁管理成人篮球联赛, had just walked into the gym when he noticed a commotion around a man sprawled on the court. Kerns thought Miller might have turned an ankle or maybe even had a seizure. When he checked Miller's wrist and neck area for a pulse, there was none.

“我们必须立即开始心肺复苏术，”Kerns告诉大家.

The group's response was textbook perfect: While one man went to call 911, 克恩斯开始做胸外按压. 他用力而迅速地戳向米勒的胸膛中心, someone else helped stabilize Miller's body and another man helped count the compressions by singing the Bee Gees song "Stayin' Alive." The song matches the right tempo for compressions, 100 to 120 beats per minute.

“一到四五分钟的时候, 我想我们在场的所有人都非常担心," Kerns said.

医护人员大约在那个时候赶到了. They told Kerns to keep pumping Miller's chest while they set up a defibrillator to try jolting his heart back into rhythm.

前两次电击都不起作用. 他们试了第三次.

医护人员随后将米勒推到救护车上.

“我以为他已经去世了，”科恩斯说. “但消防员说，‘不，我们有脉搏.'"

At the hospital, doctors put Miller into an induced coma to allow his body to heal from the trauma. 三天后，他醒来，对自己为什么在那里感到困惑. He saw a television report about a mass shooting at a Walmart in El Paso, Texas, 还以为他是受害者之一.

“你很好，伙计，”他的哥哥说，他坐在床边. “我们会告诉你发生了什么. Chill out!"

The doctor told Miller his heart stopped while he was playing basketball, 他们试图找出原因. The problem turned out to be an electrical issue that caused a strange rhythm. 以防他的心脏再次停止跳动, a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter defibrillator was placed in his side.

医生允许他重返赛场.

回到篮球场上，米勒的心脏又停止了跳动. 再说一次，Kerns就在那里.

“我尖叫着要打911，”Kerns说. 然后他又跳了回来. 他只落后了一两秒钟. 他说，‘不，我没事.'"

米勒说:“除颤器立刻起作用了."

米勒的心脏骤停在某种程度上是一个警钟. 躺在医院的病床上, he decided to step away from his 9-to-5 job and start building the life he envisioned.

"I felt I had been letting fear get in the way of me becoming an entrepreneur and taking that risk," said Miller, now 27. “我害怕被评判."

In March 2020, Miller relaunched his own marketing company, All Approach, after failing twice before. He'd already had some commercial success as a music producer and songwriter, 包括在电影中加入一首歌, “圣诞几乎.通过他的坚持不懈, Miller now employs more than a dozen people and recently redesigned the website for the NAACP Snohomish County Branch.

在他濒死经历之后, Miller's advice for other survivors is to advocate for their own health, especially people of color like himself; talk to a therapist; and find a support community through social media groups.

As for himself, Miller speaks to people about his journey to empower them to go after their dreams despite failure or fear.

“这也是我寻找成就感的方式, because I feel like the biggest blessing out of all of this was just to be able to truly live my authentic life and be myself instead of living in fear and not doing what I want with my life."

发自内心的故事 chronicles the inspiring journeys of heart disease and stroke survivors, caregivers and advocates.

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