VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Doorbell camera video shows Sarah Hummel running out of her Virginia Beach home and across the street to a neighbor's house, desperate for help with CPR.
She watched her husband Dave die — going several minutes without a pulse. His family and a neighbor helped bring him back.
It all started one evening after the couple dozed off watching TV.
"And I sort of wake up to what sounds like he's fighting in his sleep," Sarah Hummel said.
"And I'm looking at him and he's got his eyes open and he's just like in this like (makes sound effects of grunting). Like this repeat pattern of struggle, struggle, struggle, and I'm like, Dave, Dave," she said.
Sarah called her son David, who was in the next room playing video games.
"And then I run inside, and then I just see," David Hummel said. "I was very confused on — like, what I saw at first because it was, it was like he was choking," he said.
"And as my son is dialing 911 on his phone and the operator gets on, Dave starts seizing. And he's shaking and so I'm, I'm really trying to see if I can get Dave to like wake up still. Like, I'm, Dave, look at me, look at me. Dave, come on," Sarah Hummel said.
Dr. Div Patel is Dave's cardiologist, "He had cardiac arrest. He had an electrical abnormality that caused a fast heart rhythm from the bottom chamber known as ventricular fibrillation."
At that moment though, Sarah had no idea what was happening, "And then he just starts sputtering, and I said, David, start chest compressions. Give me the phone. And so David just takes and starts doing chest compressions," she said.
Their other son, Cyrus, heard the commotion and came upstairs. "And I just ran up the stairs and then I saw my brother, he was already performing like CPR," Cyrus Hummel said.
"And I go, Oh good, can you take over chest compressions," Sarah Hummel said.
"I remember I was feeling scared. I mean, it, it was the scariest thing I've ever gone through," David Hummel said.
Sarah stayed on the phone with the 911 operator. "And so I get on the phone with the operator and I'm saying I need you to get here. It's an emergency. My husband's struggling to breathe," she said.
As Cyrus continued compressions, the family watched Dave's condition worsen.
"I just started noticing. His face was changing colors," Cyrus Hummel said.
"Seeing my dad like pretty much dead. I mean, he, he was completely purple," David Hummel said.
"I mean, the three of us watched him die and it was terrifying," Sarah Hummel said.
Dr. Patel confirmed what the family witnessed. "And so the process of cardiac arrest can be, some patients can have a faint pulse and they can seize or they can look differently—- and they can die....he did die." Dr. Patel said.
With Cyrus still performing compressions, Sarah knew they needed more help.
"And Cyrus goes, Oh no, what do I do? Should I stop? And I just said, do not stop. Go, go, go. And so he just like immediately back into the compressions. In that moment I knew we needed more help," she said.
"I'm praying in my brain like God help us, please help us and I'm thinking, OK, who are our neighbors?" she said.
Sarah thought of her neighbor, Dr. Mary Beth Sorrentino, a dental surgeon.
"Is there any medical professionals and I thought of Mary Beth," Sarah Hummel said.
"And I thought of her because she's in the medical field," she said.
"Dental surgeon works. I'm going," she said.
The doorbell camera captured Sarah sprinting across the street.
"I ran down the stairs, ran across the street, and ran up her yard," she said.
Sorrentino heard the commotion at her door.
"And I hear this absolutely terrifying knocking, banging, ringing of the doorbell," Sorrentino said.
"I jump up, my husband and I open up the door, and Sarah's there screaming, Do you know CPR? And immediately, I don't even know if I answered. I just ran out the door," she said.
The doorbell camera also captured the two of them running back to the Hummel's house hear both of them saying, "Dear God help us!"
Sorrentino rushed into the house. "Ran over here up the stairs, and when I get up to the top of the stairs, I see Dave lying on the bed," she said.
Sorrentino immediately directed the family to move Dave off the bed and onto the floor.
"And she goes, get him on the floor," Sarah Hummel said.
Sorrentino explained why that matters. "Because if you're compressing on the bed, the mattress is going to also compress while you're pushing on the, on the chest. So this way when we know we have a nice flat surface to do chest compressions, they're much more effective," Sorrentino said.
Once Dave was on the floor, Sorrentino took over.
"And so they get him off the bed and then and then what happens. Dave's face is blue. He has no pulse, and I immediately start effective CPR," she said.
Sarah went back downstairs to wait for paramedics and direct them inside. Doorbell camera video shows her sobbing as she walked out, saying, "Oh my God please hurry, oh my God — upstairs!"
"I go out into the front yard and outwardly I'm saying. God, please help us, please help us, please help us, please help us. I walk into the grass and I just got on my knees" she said.
"And I just had this moment with God and I said, Lord, you have called me to serve you and you have given me things to do with my life and I want you to know that whatever happens, I'm going to follow through on that and I trust you and I love you and I, I know I don't need a husband to do this work you've called me to do. I know that I can do it without him if that's what you're asking me to do, but please, could he live? I don't want to do this without him. I'd rather not. Like I remember like this exact conversation. And I feel like the Lord just kind of said, I heard you. I've got this, and that's as much as I got. And so then I opened my eyes and there's people walking in front. I don't know who came first," she said.
Paramedics arrived and began working on Dave.
"And it's just, it's just waiting and I keep saying, what's going on? Is he OK? Can you give me anything? And they just kept saying, we're working on him," Sarah said.
Paramedics had to shock Dave four times to restore his heart rhythm. Dr. Patel says that's not unusual, "And so four, sometimes four to five times is needed to get effective electrical synchrony back to supply blood to the rest of his body," he said.
Dave, meanwhile, had no awareness of what was happening around him.
"It was just like a dream to me," Dave said.
"I didn't realize, I just died. I think I'm dreaming and I'm frustrated with all these people in my, in my room," he said.
"I just was kind of getting annoyed— in my dream. And I just — in my mind, sit up and go, will you give me a moment?" he said.
"And then everybody froze in the room," he said.
Sarah, who was not in the room where the paramedics were working on Dave, believes his sudden outburst caught the first responders off guard, "They were shocked, they were shocked!" Sarah said.
Dr. Patel said the family's estimate of how long Dave went without a pulse of about 15 minutes or more is plausible. "That could certainly be the case," Patel said.
Doorbell camera video shows Dave being brought out of the house on a stretcher, escorted by first responders.
"And I go inside the ambulance and you know then he's coming out on the stretcher," Sarah Hummel said.
"And you know the last time I saw him face to face he had died right in front of me. And I'm just like, hi babe it's so nice to see you alive — wow!" she said.
Dr. Patel credited the response of everyone around Dave for saving his life.
"Totally incredible story of excellent CPR and excellent defibrillation. All of the processes in the system, the community around him came, came through for him," Patel said.
Dave said the experience came with an important lesson.
"Well, I will say this and probably one of the most important lessons. Take your medications," he said.
"I had gotten this heart condition... from, from coronavirus," he said.
He also said he had not been consistently wearing his medical device for his sleep apnea.
"Wear your CPAP if you have it. And I wasn't doing those things," he said.
"I was not being disciplined. I wear things — on occasion. It was uncomfortable, um, you know, I didn't like it, uh, and the medications I wasn't on top of," he said.
I asked Dr. Patel whether those two factors could have played a role in Dave's cardiac arrest, "That could have triggered the whole event," Patel said.
Dave said his faith helped him process what happened.
"I have a faith in God and 100%, all the things that lined up, that had to line up in order for me to be here, all lined up," he said. He's also so grateful for how his wife responded, "Sarah just made all the exact right decisions. She didn't panic. She made all the right decisions. She's been amazing and, and truly a star under pressure!
Sarah said it's taken her a few days to process everything, "I just feel, I feel so grateful. It just gives us a new, obviously appreciation for each other too, like just wow, we get to parent again, we get to, you know, spend our evenings together again, you know, that that was maybe going to be ripped away from us," she said.
If this story has you thinking, you want to be ready for a health emergency involving your loved ones and want information on CPR training offered by the Virginia Beach Rescue Squad, click here:
For CPR training offered by the Chesapeake Beach Volunteer Rescue Squad, click here:
Also, CPR training is available through the American Red Cross, click here:
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