Expecting Mother Saved by CPR

How Stephen Poole’s knowledge of CPR saved his wife and unborn child’s
lives

By Ciara Gray

It was just a normal day for Stephen and Mandy Poole and their two children.
Mandy and Emily, her seven-year-old daughter, had spent the day Christmas shopping
together. Stephen and his four-year-old son, Matt had spent the day watching football.
However, at home that evening, their lives were turned upside-down.

Stephen was cooking burgers in the kitchen and called out to his wife to ask if she
wanted cheese on hers, to which she did not respond. “I walked over to where she was
sitting and found her unresponsive,” Stephen recalls. “Her eyes were rolled back a little
bit in her head and I shouted her name a few times but got nothing. I checked for a pulse
and could not feel anything.”

Mandy Poole had gone into cardiac arrest at home while she was eight weeks
pregnant with her and Stephen’s third child, Owen. Stephen performed CPR on Mandy
for 11 minutes until paramedics arrived. Mandy was then shocked four times at her home
and brought to the emergency room where she was shocked one more time.

Mandy and Stephen met during their freshman year at Clemson University and
began dating during their sophomore year. They dated all throughout college and after
graduation until they got married in December of 2007. “We knew we wanted kids before
we got married,” Mandy said. About a year and a half after getting married, Mandy got
pregnant with their first child, Emily. “Emily is our shy, smart one. Miss Perfect,”
Stephen said. A couple years later, they had their first son Matt.

After Mandy’s cardiac arrest on the evening of December 3rd, 2016, she spent
five days in the ICU at _____________ hospital. “We were still touch and go with
Mandy at that time,” Stephen said. “They weren’t exactly sure what had caused [the heart
attack] at that point.” The Poole’s had an OB specialist come in to check on Owen, who
told Stephen not to ‘expect too much’. “I wasn’t so nervous about Owen,” Stephen says,
“for some reason, I knew he was fighter and that he was good. I was worried about
Mandy, I didn’t want her to have to go through another episode like that.”

Luckily, she did not have to. As time went on, Mandy had the defibrillator
replaced and began the steps of recovery. As soon as they could, the Poole’s had an
ultrasound done to determine the effect of the heart attack on the baby, and the results
were surprising. “[Owen] was in there, heart beating away, squirming like a little jelly
bean,” Stephen laughs. The Poole family was on the road to recovery. After a little over a
week, Mandy returned home from the hospital, but still had a ways to go before feeling
better.

“I don’t remember the event and I don’t remember very much from the hospital,”
Mandy says. “I remember coming home and I didn’t remember the lay out of my house.”

“It was very hard to believe that all of that happened to me and it happened so
fast. I mean I went from, you know, eight weeks pregnant happy with my son, to cardiac
arrest in the ICU with a defibrillator now—and I’m only 34 years old. It was very
humbling to come home and realize that I was still alive and that I can still be a mom to
my three kids.”

It is important to Mandy and Stephen to share their story because they want
people to know that CPR really does save lives. “Without CPR I would not be here, my
child would not be here. I wake up every day, grateful, for the man that [Stephen] is and
that God put him in my path,” Mandy says. “I am very proud to be his wife.”

“The more people that we can touch and show the outcomes of knowing CPR, the
better. You never know whose life you’re going to save, you really don’t,” Stephen said.
“I mean, it was a normal Saturday afternoon. I had no idea that later on that evening, I
would be saving Mandy’s life and Owen’s life.”

The rest of Mandy’s pregnancy with Owen went smoothly and they are now a
happy family of five living in Aiken, South Carolina. Mandy’s story, and stories like
hers, has helped to inspire people everywhere to learn CPR, so that in an emergency they
are able to save the life of someone they love.