“Marguerite Darby likely owes her life to a quick-acting pharmacist and a new way of performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Darby, 60, doesn’t remember much about the day she went into cardiac arrest at the Hermiston Rite Aid store. She woke up a week later in a Seattle hospital with only fuzzy memories of shopping for patio furniture with her husband Tom.
“On April 27, the couple drove eight miles to town from their farm. They were admiring a display of patio umbrellas a Rite Aid when the routine shopping trip suddenly morphed into a fight for survival.
“‘Marguerite said, ‘I don’t feel right’ and immediately passed out,’ Tom said. ‘She fell into a shelving area across the aisle and didn’t move.’
“Marguerite had suffered cardiac arrest, and electrical malfunction of the heart. That’s different from a heart attack, which involved a blockage. Tom, in shock, remembers starting mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Pharmacist Sarah Schwab knelt beside him and checked Marguerite’s pulse. Finding none, she began CPR compressions.”
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