For Bob and Diane Spicer, morning walks hand in hand now carry a deeper meaning following a trip to Roosevelt Lake last December.
“Every day that I get up, I look at it as a bonus day,” Bob said.
Just before Christmas, the couple, married for 38 years, hiked to the famed cave dwellings at Roosevelt Lake along with a friend.
“We walked through the visitor center and started the climb—about a mile up to the caves,” Bob recalled.
A park ranger stopped them just before they reached the caves and warned them of recent rockslides before advising them to view the dwellings from a different area.
“He basically points to his right and says but if you go over here to the right you’re going to be able to see everything and then boom lights are out,” Bob said.
Bob immediately began to pass out. The couple would later find out that the artery that feeds blood to his heart was 99.9% blocked. Bob was experiencing what is known as a widow maker.
“At first, I thought maybe he just got winded, I kind of caught him and lowered him on the ground,” Diane said. “I checked his pulse but he didn't have a pulse."
Diane, a longtime nurse, immediately began CPR, keeping Bob’s heart and lungs working for nearly 20 minutes. A friend, with the help of the park ranger, located an AED to shock Bob’s heart back into rhythm.
“I just kept telling him, ‘Come on, Bob, you’ve got this. Help is coming,’” Diane recalled.
Now, the Spicers are sharing their story to inspire others to learn CPR, a skill Diane says made all the difference.
“Not enough people know CPR, and you never know when you could be the one in position to save someone's life,” she said.
Brian Keller with the American Heart Association says events like the Heart Walk, happening Saturday, March 29, aim to change that.
“We want to see one person in every household trained in CPR,” Keller said. “It makes every home and every event, every place you go safer.”
The Heart Walk will offer hands-on CPR training on-site, empowering more people to take action in emergencies.
Thanks to Diane’s efforts, Bob is here to celebrate alongside other survivors and enjoy what he calls his “bonus days.”
For Bob and Diane Spicer, every walk now feels like a victory lap.
