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Son saves mother's life with CPR he learned at school Sunday Apr 2, 2017 at 12:01 AM By Madeline Shannon Grants Pass Daily Courier Fifteen-year-old David Parker sat next to his mother as she recounted her experience of suffering cardiac arrest and then being revived by her son. She didn't know he was saving her. She didn't even know he knew CPR. "That was amazing when I found out," Kate Parker said. "That was one of the first things I asked him. 'How did you know how to do CPR?' and he goes, 'Oh, the fireman taught me.'" Parker, her husband, Charley, and their children attended a meeting Thursday at the Grants Pass Parkway Public Safety Center, where they finally met the paramedics who took her to Asante Three Rivers Medical Center back in December. Each year, more than 350,000 out-of-hospital cardiac arrests occur in the United States, according to the American Heart Association. CPR, especially if performed in the first few minutes of cardiac arrest, can double or triple a person's chance of survival. David learned how to perform CPR two years ago when he was attending Rogue River Jr./Sr. High School. A firefighter from the Rogue River Fire District 1 came to the school one day during David's physical education class to teach the students how to perform CPR. The instruction was part of an ongoing outreach program on the part of the fire district and other local firefighting agencies to educate the public about basic safety protocols. David's efforts to retain the information he learned that one day at school paid off when his mother suddenly collapsed on Dec. 18 at home. Doctors later told the 47-year-old woman and her husband that she went into sudden cardiac arrest. After his mother went into cardiac arrest, David sprang into action when his sister yelled for someone to call 911. "My mom collapsed and my sister yelled, 'Call 911!' and Mom was having trouble breathing," David explained. "Then my sister yelled, 'Perform CPR!' because she knew I knew how and she was too hysterical to perform herself at that time." Although Parker believes her son didn't think he ever would have to use CPR, she later learned he had been practicing in his room. "Prior to this happening, I didn't even know that he did that," she said. "He didn't tell us he was doing it, so I didn't know he was practicing or anything … It's just part of who he is — he wants to make sure that he can do things perfectly and absolutely right." Despite the fact that Parker and her doctors initially thought she had a heart attack, doctors eventually concluded Parker has an uncommon disease called idiopathic ventricular fibrillation. "It means your heart went into V-fib, and we don't know why," she said. After further medical evaluation, Parker underwent surgery on Feb. 23 to have a cardiodefibrillator implanted, effectively acting as a paramedic in her chest. "So if I were to have arrythmia, the same kind that I had before, it would shock me just like when the paramedics shock you with paddles. It would do the same thing, but internally," Parker said. "So it would prevent another cardiac arrest." Although she doesn't remember the day of her cardiac arrest, Parker said the first responders and her family helped her get a sense of what happened that day and move forward. Meanwhile, her son the CPR expert has some simple advice. "The most important thing in an emergency," he said, "is to stay calm." Reach reporter Madeline Shannon at 541-474-3813 or [email protected].