Terry Poole would have been dead by now, but for the smartness and bravery of his stepsons who administered CPR to him when he suffered a sudden heart attack.
Isaiah Walker, 12 and Corey, 11, came to their stepdad’s rescue Saturday when he suffered the medical emergency at their River Beach, Fla. Home.
Exuding bravery, they stepped up when it mattered most to resuscitate their dying stepdad who collapsed after suffering the heart attack.
Isaiah performed the CPR as his brother Corey dialed 911 for assistance, WPBF reported. Hailed as heroes by their families, the two said they learned how to administer CPR when they enrolled for swimming lessons at Barracuda Bay Aquatic Complex in Riviera Beach.
“I remembered it and I did CPR on my stepdad,” Isaiah Walker observed, and while he was at it, Corey was engaging the dispatcher on the 911 call who admonished that they remain calm.
“She said, ‘Do CPR,'” Corey Walker said. “Just let your arms stretch and place your heel of your hand between his chest.” Corey relayed the dispatcher’s orders to Isaiah as the race to save their stepfather unfolded in front of their younger siblings—Lyric, 8 and Cash, 7.
Lyric said he stayed extremely calm while the process went, taking a “deep breath.” But that wasn’t the case with Cash who was scarily nervous.
“I was scared…I thought he was dead,” he recounted.
The kids’ mother, Shonovia Walker, who wasn’t home when her husband suffered rushed home when she was informed of Poole’s condition.
“When I got to my door, they had Terry on the floor, trying to revive him,” she said. “They had my kids in the back room, trying to keep them away from what was going on.”
Some members of the Palm Gardens Medical Center, where Poole was rushed praised Isaiah and Corey’s heroism and bravery in administering the CPR.
“Because of your son, your children, they saved him,” Walker said she was told. “When he got there, he could have already been dead, your son is a herp.”
The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention estimates that about 735,000 Americans suffer a heart attack each year.
