A local woman is being hailed a hero and her actions are a reminder that anyone is capable of saving a life.
Last Thursday, while at work inside a pharmacy at a local Walmart, Jenae Schroder saw a woman go into cardiac arrest, so she jumped into action.
“I bent down and started doing chest compressions and then after a little while the AED machine came over, we stopped to remove her clothing and get the AED machine hooked up,” says Schroder.
Since the woman had a weak pulse, the machine administered a shock. Jenae then gave chest compressions to the woman for about 15 minutes before the ambulance arrived to take over.
She says she never hesitated to help -- she only wanted to see the woman push through and be alright.
“I didn't want to see the husband lose his wife right there.”
While Jenae says her CPR training helped her jump into action, she says had there not been an AED machine available, the outcome could have been different.
“The AED was also helpful in letting us know if the compressions were proper or whether or not they needed to be a little bit harder."
REMSA gave us a demonstration to show us just how user friendly equipment like this can be during a life or death scenario.
REMSA says about every thirty minutes they train a person like Jenae on the how to perform CPR.
The company is hopeful that a happy ending to a story like this one will prompt more people to come in and learn what they can do to save lives.
“I hope it sparks everybody to think at least I can get CPR trained because that's the basic knowledge that I think everybody needs to have,” says Cindy Green, Education Manager with REMSA.
On Friday, the cardiac arrest victim's daughter went to the Walmart to thank Jenae for saving her mother's life.
“I was really happy that what I did helped in saving her and with all the other employees and the customers that were helping us, we all made a big difference that day in that woman's life,” says Schroder.
