Reasons to learn CPR

You never know when an emergency will happen… here is one reason to learn CPR, especially when around kids of any age!

Pamela Rauseo and her five-month old nephew, Sebastian, were stuck in bumper to bumper traffic on a Miami highway last week. Sebastian, who had been crying nonstop all throughout suddenly stopped, and Pamela’s instinct told her to check on him. Pamela said, “When he stopped crying, I sensed something might be wrong. It was like a gut feeling.”

Pamela parked her car on the highway, got out, and started screaming for help. Sebastian had been suffering from breathing problems ever since catching a cold from January, and the pair had just come from a doctor’s appointment at the hospital where Sebastian’s mother works as a nurse.

The brave aunt is not certified in CPR, but remembered a brief technique tutorial she was given once when her own seven-year-old son was hospitalized for respiratory issues when he was a baby. Luckily, Fire Capt. Anthony Trim and Lt. Alvaro Tonanez were stuck in the same jam as Pamela and Sebastian. They were literally 30 seconds away from the scene when they heard the call over the radio.

Sebastian responded to the CPR but continued to slip in and out of consciousness until he arrived at the hospital. He will stay in the hospital until doctors can find a reason as to his sudden cardiac arrest.

Remarkably, the entire incident was captured by Miami Herald photographer Al Diaz. He too was stuck in traffic and documented the ordeal.