A young man’s quick thinking saved his sister’s life after she collapsed in their Moncton home.
Logan Quinn is being hailed as a hero for performing CPR on his sister Paige, who suddenly went into cardiac arrest.
On Feb. 14, Quinn was in his family home when he heard a loud thump. Thinking his sister had just dropped her phone, he didn’t think too much of it but he decided to go check on her.
He found his 15-year-old sister on the ground.
“I went over and I said ‘Paige you’ve got to get up,’ and she didn’t move,” Quinn said.
“I saw that she was purple and I ran into my mom’s room and said: ‘she’s not moving or breathing.’”
The 24-year-old brother has never had any formal CPR training but with help from a 911 operator, he jumped into action performing chest compressions for nearly 10 minutes.
“I knew about the crossing your fingers and pushing and the operator said, ‘I’m going to get you to go, one-two-three,’ and after that she just got me to go, one-two-three-four, one-two-three-four, and I just did that until the paramedics showed up.”
Quinn said it felt like much longer, but those 10 minutes saved her life.
The only thing on his mind, he said, “was hoping that she would pull through, start breathing again.”
Paige was taken to a hospital in Moncton and then airlifted to the IWK children’s hospital in Halifax. Her family drove across the border to meet her.
At the IWK, she was diagnosed with a heart condition called long QT syndrome (LQTS). The condition can cause chaotic and rapid heart rhythms, which forced Paige to collapse.
“I think that he saved his sister’s life and kudos to him,” said Dr. Sandokh Dhillon, a pediatric cardiologist at the IWK.
“I think he should be awarded with some kind of bravery (award) because if he wouldn’t have started CPR she wouldn’t be alive today.”
Dhillon is advocating for CPR skills to be taught in schools, to help save lives in case of an emergency.
“It takes only two to four hours a year to teach students effective CPR and how to use an AED.”
According to Quinn, their mother was diagnosed with the same condition at the hospital although she had never shown any symptoms. He said he is planning on taking a CPR course when he returns home.
After undergoing surgery and three weeks of hospitalization, Paige was released from the hospital on Friday.
“The doctors are pretty amazed at how fast she’s turned around and recovered and everything.”
“I know she’s thankful, I don’t have to hear it from her, I know.”