'Saved My Life': New Interactive Technology Aims To Get More People Trained In CPR
PHILADELPHIA (CBS) -- New interactive technology aims to get more people trained in CPR. February is federally designated as Heart Month. Saving the life of a patient in cardiac arrest depends on quick action. A Main Line mom is now living proof of that.
Eron Friedlaender, meeting for the first time, received flowers from a stranger who will be forever grateful.
Jaclyn McGlone, newly married, was coaching her soccer team when she suddenly passed out.
"Her son was playing on a soccer field next to me and she saw the whole incident and responded in the best way possible," McGlone said. "Saved my life."
McGlone was in cardiac arrest. Friedlaender, a doctor, immediately started CPR.
"She didn't have a pulse and she wasn't breathing. She was blue and unresponsive," Friedlaender said.
They were both at the Perelman Center for Advanced Medicine for the unveiling of a new CPR training kiosk sponsored by Independence Blue Cross.
It teaches hands-only CPR with a mannequin to practice.
Chest compressions from bystanders can keep cardiac arrest patients stay alive until help arrives, which is why the Heart Association says more people need to become familiar with CPR.
"About nine out of 10 people who suffer cardiac arrest outside of the hospital die in Philadelphia," Independence Blue Cross Executive Vice President Richard Snyder said.
McGlone, who's a mother now, was one of the lucky ones because of a stranger who knew what to do.
"Overwhelming emotions for me to be a part of something so big for somebody," Friedlaender said.
McGlone ended up with two stents. She wishes now that she recognized the symptoms.
"I had classic neck pain. I was very uncomfortable laying on my back. Now, knowing the symptoms, these are very classic symptoms of how heart attacks present in women," she said. "I was 30 years old. I didn't think it was a possibility."
Heart symptoms for women are often different than what men experience.
The Heart Association's first CPR training kiosk at the visitor's center has trained 13,000 people since it opened three years ago.
