Debbie Rothschild is lucky to be alive. It was a beautiful fall morning, one year ago, to be exact, and she decided to go for a bike ride – something she’d done often and loved to do. But she doesn’t remember that bike ride, because she ended up in the hospital and doesn’t remember anything about that day. Gretchen Denum, however, does. Denum was driving home when she saw an overturned bike on a patch of grass in front of a neighbor’s house. Debbie was lying near it, unconscious. Denum called Rae Scarcella, the neighbor whose front yard Debbie had collapsed on, and the two immediately became Debbie’s heroes. Rae began CPR while Gretchen dialed 911. The fire department and EMTs arrived minutes later. They had to use a defibrilator and rushed her to the nearest hospital. She woke up five days later in the ICU, unable to remember the terrifying incident that had almost taken her life.
Three months after Debbie’s recovery, she held a luncheon for her close family and friends in order to honor her “lifesavers”, as she calls them. She surprised everyone with at the end with a free CPR class. It’s her way of “paying it forward,” Debbie says. But she hasn’t stopped there – Debbie has made it her life’s mission to educate people, especially women, about heart health and CPR. Debbie was recently fitted with a pacemaker and has participated in a symposium at the Mayo Clinic in order to learn why heart disease is the No. 1 killer of women.
Debbie wants to encourage everyone – old and young, male or female – to learn CPR. An hour-long class could be the key to saving someone’s life some day.
