Sam’s Story
Sam saved his brother’s life. It was a typical Friday night. As Sam’s family sat around their Shabbat table, none of them could have expected what was to come.
The meal was enjoyable, with good laughs, great conversation and even better food. After a long week of work and school, it was great to be able to relax together and catch up.
As the night progressed, the younger boys went to the basement to play while Sam and his parents moved over to the den for dessert. Suddenly, as the cake plates were being passed around, one of the boys burst into the den. With a look of panic in his eyes, and a tremor in his voice, he managed to get out two words: “Louie’s choking.”
For a split second, everyone froze, both shocked and confused. They raced downstairs, and there was Louie, their 7 year old son, hunched over, beet red, and totally unable to breathe. Panic filled the room. Louie’s parents were hysterical.
That’s when Sam stepped in. Upon entering the room, and comprehending within the chaos what was going, he immediately stepped behind his younger brother and began to perform the Heimlich Maneuver. Continually thrusting on Louie’s stomach with all of his strength, Sam prayed for a miracle.
A few seconds later, though it seemed like light years for everyone present, a bright white sucking candy shot out of Louie’s mouth, across the room. He quickly regained his breathing, and soon after, the color returned to his face.
The room was silent. Everyone just stared at Sam and Louie, in utter disbelief. His parents were in shock. No one was able to get a word out, except for Sam, who simply stated, “I knew what to do thanks to Blink.”
A few days later, in front of an auditorium full of seniors in Flatbush High School, preparing to take Blink’s two hour CPR course, Sam shared this story with them. He said, “No one warned us that this was going to happen on Friday night. No one told us that Louie was going to choke. It just happened. And thank G-d I knew what to do because of this program that you’re about to take. I was sitting in your chair two years ago, contemplating whether to take this course seriously or not, along with the rest of my classmates. Thank G-d I made the right decision, because it saved my brother’s life.”
Sam’s story is Blink’s 43rd save story since its inception in 2014. Parents have saved their infants, children have saved their aging parents, and countless years have been added to the lives of the people who were saved—all thanks to some simple life-saving knowledge, and basic training.
In just 5 years, Blink has trained over 8,000 community members to save lives, using CPR, and the results have been incredible.
This summer, Blink will hold its 5th Annual Blink Week, a string of standalone CPR classes open to the community for free, in Brooklyn and Deal. These classes are extremely intimate, they’re broken down into small groups with dedicated instructors to ensure that everyone leaves with full confidence. All of the night classes are open to men and women, fully separate with gender-appropriate instructors. The day classes are open to women only.
All you need to do is come to one 90 minute class. If you’ve taken the class before, come again—it never hurts to take a refresher course to practice your skills. If you’ve yet to take a class, what are you waiting for?
We pray that we’ll never need to use these skills, but it’s much better to know how to perform CPR and never need to use it, than to be there when someone needs CPR and not know how to do it.
Hatzalah can generally get where they need to be within 2 minutes, however, those first 120 seconds before they arrive are often the difference between life and death.
Whether it’s a heart attack, someone choking, or lifted from the bottom of a pool, resuscitation must begin immediately.
If it’s your brother or sister, an aunt or uncle, a father or mother, or your very own child, those few seconds feel like a lifetime—especially when you’re waiting helplessly for assistance to arrive.
Thanks to Blink there are so many stories that are similar to Sam’s. Here’s Vivian’s story.
Vivian’s Story
Vivian saved her baby nephew. Her nine month old nephew was sitting in his highchair in her kitchen. His baby-sitter was feeding him rice and beans. Everything seemed fine. A few minutes passed, then Vivian heard her nephew let out a slight cough. She had a feeling that something wasn’t right, so she unstrapped the baby from the highchair. Suddenly, his face started turning purple—he was choking on his lunch.
Vivian laid him across her arm and started giving him back blows. With every blow, she became increasingly fearful that her nephew had tried to swallow way too much. His face was getting more purple by the second. As tears rolled down her face, Vivian continued to give it her all, fearing the worst but praying for the best. Finally, a full clump of rice and beans came shooting out of his mouth and he began to breathe again.
Vivian had taken one of Blink’s summer classes two years earlier, and that afternoon she used the training to save her nephew’s life.
Dave’s Story
David was watching his campers in the pool as they splashed around. A few of them were racing from end to end, while others were trying to see how long they could hold their breath underwater. Benny (his name has been changed for anonymity) was excellent at that game, and David knew it, so he watched to see if he could top his own record. David waited for Benny to pop up and take a breath, but he didn’t. He was underwater for a long time. He wasn’t that good!
David realized something was wrong, and as he was ready to jump in, he noticed Benny’s body begin to float to the top of the water, his face pale, lips purple, still as can be.
David immediately jumped in, dragged Benny out, and began CPR. He pounded his fists into Benny’s chest and tried his hardest to breathe life into his lifeless camper. Within two minutes, David felt Benny’s body begin to move again and he started to spit up water. Hatzalah soon arrived and took over from there.
That night at the hospital, the paramedics asked David what had transpired in those few minutes before they arrived. After describing the traumatic events, the paramedic said, “You saved the boy’s life. Had you not done what you did, he most likely would not have made it.” Thank G-d, Benny made a full recovery, and was back in camp just a few days later.
David called Blink the next day to say, “Thank you. I saved a boy yesterday with the training you gave me—just one week ago.”
Saving someone’s life is one of the greatest things you can do. Should someone stop breathing in front of you, be like Sam, Vivian and David. Have a happy story to tell afterwards. Had they not taken the time to learn CPR, those stories could have ended very differently.
