Two children are being hailed as heroes after their quick thinking saved the life of their stepfather.
Isaiah Walker, 12 and his brother Corey, 11, jumped into action Saturday when their stepdad, Terry Poole, suffered a medical emergency at their River Beach, Fla. home, local station WPBF reported. Poole had collapsed in the living room after suffering an apparent heart attack.
The Walker children jumped into action when their stepfather suffered an apparent heart attack. (Photo: WPBF / video screenshot)
Isaiah immediately began CPR on the ailing man while his younger brother dialed 911.
Isaiah said he remembered learning how to administer CPR from taking swimming lessons at a local aquatic center. Corey, who was on the phone with a dispatcher, helped guide his big brother through the process and relayed the dispatcher’s instructions to him.
“She said, ‘Do CPR,’” Corey Walker recalled. “Just let your arms stretch and place your heel of your hand between his chest.”
The pair’s younger siblings, 8-year-old Lyric Walker and 7-year-old Cash Walker, watched on the boys worked to save their stepfather’s life.
“I was scared,” Cash Walker told WPBF. “I thought he was dead.”
The children’s mother, Shonovia Walker, said she rushed home as soon as she got the call about Poole. She recalled walking through the door and seeing “they had Terry on the floor, trying to revive him.”
According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, about 735,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year. Coronary disease, or heart disease, is the leading cause of heart attacks.
Poole was rushed to a local area hospital, where Walker said staff told her had it not been for her sons’ quick actions, Poole could’ve died.
“[They told me], ‘Because of your son, your children, they saved him,'” Shonovia Walker said. “‘When he got there, he could have already been dead. Your son is a hero.'”
“It made me feel very proud,” she added.
