She learned Hands-Only CPR for her son. Then she came to another mother's rescue.
Robin Castillo was baking pies early Easter morning when she heard a woman shrieking in the hallway of her condominium. A neighbor was desperate for help.
"I went out to see what was going on. It was 4:00 in the morning. She was screaming, 'Please help me! Please help me! My son is not breathing,'" Castillo said.
She dropped what she was doing, ran to the neighbor's unit and found the boy unresponsive, turning blue.
"I immediately started performing the chest compressions," Castillo said. Immediate CPR can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest.
Although Castillo planned to continue CPR until help arrived, she was able to resuscitate the child.
"He regained his color. He did a big cough and started breathing again. So when the ambulance arrived, they were able to take it from there," Castillo said.
Castillo, who works as a security guard at the Target Center, had learned Hands-Only CPR during the Big Ten women's basketball tournament in Minneapolis just a few weeks earlier.
"I love the events. I love being around people and the crowds and the joyfulness and creating the magic for everybody that's there," Castillo said. "I love being able to help people out."
On a whim, Castillo stopped by the 蜜芽传媒 booth during her break. She didn't even know the organization was going to be there that day to demonstrate CPR.
"Something just reached out to me," she said.
In about five minutes, Castillo learned Hands-Only CPR. She wanted to be prepared to perform it at home someday for her son, Julian, who's 22 years old and has epilepsy.
"Sometimes when he has seizures, he turns blue and stops breathing. So this was my curiosity of wanting to learn (Hands-Only) CPR just in case I ever need to use it," she said.
The neighbor and her son praise Castillo daily for what she did that day.
"He's doing great. He is very thankful for his life," she added.
Castillo will receive the Heartsaver Hero Award — the AHA's way of saying "thank you" for performing CPR, a heroic act and a critical link in the chain of survival. Castillo said her reaction was instinctual.
"No one else around knew how to do (Hands-Only CPR). There was no time to think of second guesses," she said. "You gotta try the knowledge that you were given."
It was easy for Castillo to put herself in the other mother's shoes.
"If that was my child who needed help, I would want somebody to help me. And just hearing a mother cry for her child that way, it's very emotional. If I can help, I will help," she said.
Castillo believes more people should learn CPR. An estimated 350,000 people in the United States experience sudden cardiac arrest outside of the hospital each year, and only about 9% survive.
"You never know when you're going to need (to use the training). You could be at the right place at the right time," Castillo said. "I know a lot of people can pass away because people don't know what to do."
Big Ten Conference Commissioner Tony Petitti said he's grateful for the AHA's "important work" educating fans at the Big Ten Women's Basketball Tournament.
"We're absolutely thrilled that Ms. Castillo's interest in a five-minute CPR training and her quick action saved a young boy's life," he added. "The Heartsaver Hero Award is well-deserved. I hope this great story inspires others to learn CPR and save a life."
