Portable defibrillator saves life at Alabama church
Sallie Sims recalls when she suffered heart failure while attending a funeral at a church equipped with a portable defibrillator that helped save her life. (Photo by Jim Hannon, The Times Daily, Huntsville, Ala.)
The Times Daily in Huntsville, Ala., reports:
The last thing Sallie Sims remembers about going to a funeral last week at CrossPoint Church of Christ was wondering if she would know the fourth verse to the hymn “No Setting Sun.”
CrossPoint bought its defibrillator in 2006 at the urging of a church elder. Staff members rushed to get the device when Sims collapsed.
Sims is living proof that having an automated external defibrillator, or AED, on site can make a difference in whether a person lives after the onset of sudden cardiac death.
“I finished the song and then, the next thing, I was in an ambulance, and a man was trying to put oxygen on me,” Sims said. “I told him I didn’t like having anything on my face.”
