Pat tells his story in his book, “A Second Chance.” Three years ago he was a passenger on a plane when he began feeling sweaty and clammy.
The EMT and nurse started CPR until flight attendants could get the defibrillator that shocked pat’s heart back into its rhythm.
Metro Man Shares Remarkable Story Of Recovery After Cardiac Arrest

Read the Story and see the Video

Michael Jackson’s family said he suffered cardiac arrest. There are many possible causes of that including a heart attack, other heart abnormalities or drug use. Sudden cardiac arrest also took the life of a pilot in flight just last week. An Overland Park man’s story is similar, only he survived.

Continental Airlines pilot Craig Lenell died in the cockpit over the Atlantic. Pat Emmett heard the news.

“I keep thinking gee whiz, if they’d just done everything they did for me where everything worked right, would he be with us today?” Pat said.

Pat tells his story in his book, “A Second Chance.” Three years ago he was a passenger on a plane when he began feeling sweaty and clammy.

“I just collapsed and died on the spot and I was gone about five minutes I bet,” he said.

Pat said he would have been gone forever except an EMT and a nurse were sitting nearby.

They recognized Pat had gone into sudden cardiac arrest. In his case, it was caused by a heart attack, although there are many other causes.

The EMT and nurse started CPR until flight attendants could get the defibrillator that shocked pat’s heart back into its rhythm.

“Somebody was watching over Pat. There’s no question about it. That is the exception.” Dr. Martin Emert at the University of Kansas Hospital said.

Dr. Emert said 95 percent of people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest die.

“We can probably prevent 50 percent of the sudden cardiac death out there and we’re not doing that” Dr. Emert said.

Pat didn’t even need to have a defibrillator implanted. But many others who’ve had sudden cardiac arrest do so if it happens again, the heart can automatically be shocked back to a normal rhythm.

And Dr. Emert said anyone who’s had heart trouble should talk with their doctor about whether they’re at high risk for cardiac arrest and might need an implant. But the doctor and Pat said because it can happen to anyone, everyone should know CPR and how to use a defibrillator.

“I have a feeling I was sent back for other purposes, which is probably to help save lives while I’m here,” Pat said.

Pat has also started the Heart of America Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association.

Copyright © 2009, WDAF-TV

911 Dispatch log of Emergency call for Michael Jackson.
This recording is interesting to those of us who teach CPR and AED Use. It once again reminds us that EVERYONE should be trained in CPR and AED use. A few hours of your time to learn CPR could save the life of someone you care about or a stranger.
So what can improve the chances of a happy ending?
After Cardiac Arrest getting a patient hooked up to an AED within 3 to 5 minutes, can increase their survival rate.
Every minute that passes without a shock to the heart reduces the survival rate by up to 10 percent.
You need to learn CPR ASAP. If you have not had a class recently, attend a CPR class to get your skills updated.
This Michael Jackson tradegy can help raise awareness for CPR and AED Training.
More Info about what TMZ says happed to Michael Jackson.

Listen to the dispatch call

WASHINGTON, June 25 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ — The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association said Thursday that pop singer Michael Jackson’s death at the age of 50 underscores the tragedy of sudden cardiac arrest, which kills nearly 300,000 Americans each year and is the nation’s leading cause of death.

“Sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) is the result of an electrical disruption of the heart and is different than a heart attack. It can strike seemingly healthy individuals without warning, including those with no known history of heart disease. SCA kills an American once every two minutes and can happen virtually anytime and anywhere. Nearly 80 percent of all sudden cardiac arrests occur in the home, like in Mr. Jackson’s case. Even though Mr. Jackson’s collapse was apparently witnessed, emergency medical services responded promptly and Mr. Jackson’s home was near UCLA Medical Center, it was still not sufficient to revive Mr. Jackson because SCA victims usually need immediate CPR and the shock of an automated external defibrillator (AED) if they are to have any chance of survival. Today’s news should be a reminder that CPR is a basic life-saving skill that everyone should know, and that AEDs should be widely deployed to enhance the chance of survival.”
More info from the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association

Characteristics of a Self-Actualizing Person
By Dr. Richard Boyum

Listed below are a series of 16 characteristics of a self-actualizing individual as described by Abraham Maslow. Self-actualizing here is defined as a person who is in the process of fulfilling their potential.
1. The self-actualized person has more efficient perception of reality and more comfortable relations with it. He can accept the good and the bad, the highs and the lows, and he can tell the difference.

2. Acceptance of self, others, and nature. The self-actualizing person sees reality as it is and accepts responsibility for it. He is as objective as a subjective being can be in his perceptions.

3. The self-actualizing person has spontaneity, simplicity and naturalness. In other words, this kind of person is not hung up on being as others think he should be. He is a person who is capable of doing what feels good and natural for himself simply because that’s how he feels. He does not try to hurt others, but he has respect for what is good himself.
4. Problem Centering. The self-actualizing person is someone who is generally strongly focused on problems outside of himself. He is concerned with the problems of others and the problems of society, and is willing to work to try to alleviate those difficulties.
5. The quality for detachment, the need for privacy. For all his social mindedness, the self-actualizing person has a need to be by himself or a need for solitude. He enjoys times for quiet reflection and doesn’t always need people around him. He can be with the few people that he would be close to and not need to communicate with them. Their presence is sufficient in and of itself.
6. Autonomy, independence of culture and environment. The self-actualizing person is capable of doing things for himself and making decisions on his own. He believes in who and what he is.
7. Continued freshness or appreciation. The self-actualizing person experiences a joy in the simple and the natural. Sunsets are always beautiful and he seeks them out. He can still enjoy playing the games he played as a child and having fun in some of the same ways he did many years before.
8. The mystic experience, the peak experience. Self-actualizing people usually have experiences in which they literally feel they are floating. They feel very much in tune or at one with the world around them, and almost feel as if they are, for a momentary period in time, part of a different reality.
9. A feeling of togetherness. Self-actualizing people have a feeling for all of mankind. They are aware and sensitive to the people that are about them.
10. Interpersonal relations. Self-actualizing people have deeper and more profound interpersonal relations than other adults. They are capable of fusion, greater love and more perfect identification that other people could consider possible. They generally tend to have relatively few friends, but those relationships are deep and very meaningful.
11. The democratic character structures. Self-actualizing people tend to believe in the equal nature of human beings, that every individual has a right to say, and that each person has his strengths and each person has his weaknesses.
12. Discriminating between means and ends, between good and evil. Self-actualizing people know the difference between means and ends and good and evil and do not twist them in a way that hurt themselves or others.
13. Philosophical and unhostile sense of humor. Self-actualizing people tend to enjoy humor. They like to laugh and like to joke, but not at the expense of others. They are generally seen as good natured, even though they are capable of being very serious.
Read the rest of the article

Osteoporosis means “porous bone.” If you looked at healthy bone under a microscope, you would see that parts of it look like a honeycomb. If you have osteoporosis, the holes and spaces in the honeycomb are much bigger than they are in healthy bone. This means your bones have lost density, or mass. It also means that the structure of your bone tissues has become abnormal. As your bones become less dense, they become weaker.
From the National Osteoporosis Foundation
For some people affected by the disease, simple activities such as lifting a child, bending down to pick up a newspaper or even sneezing can cause a bone to break. Because osteoporosis is a disease of the bones, it is important to know some basics about your bones. Your bones are made up of three major components that make them both
flexible and strong:

1. Collagen, a protein that gives bones a flexible framework
2. Calcium-phosphate mineral complexes that make bones hard and strong
3. Living bone cells that remove and replace weakened sections of bone

See pictures on what normal bone looks like and what osteoporotic bone looks like

See Pictures and more info