When a sobbing man ran from the car carrying a limp child, Jenny froze. "For a moment I had trouble processing it," she recalls. "I was just stunned."
Here, in front of her, a life and death event was unfolding. And Jenny Provenzano would soon call upon her knowledge of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to help save a young boy's life.
Thrust into the spotlight
At the end of a fun-filled weekend, Jenny and her boyfriend were heading home. They'd stopped at a shopping center for a short break. As she returned to the car, screeching tires caught Jenny's attention and she watched in horror as a father pulled his unresponsive six year-old son from the car. "The dad was desperate for help. He tried the urgent care center, but it was closed because it was Sunday evening."
Searching for assistance, the father ran into the nearby sandwich shop. "At this point," says Jenny, "a couple of minutes had passed and clearly nobody was doing anything." Steeling herself, she gathered her courage and followed him inside. "I peeked at the young boy's face and it was blue. I knew right away it was a critical situation. I thought, I can't let his death be on my conscience. I can't live with myself if I don't try to do something. So, I just decided to be the one to help."
She asked the father to lay the boy on the floor and she began CPR.
Awareness makes all the difference
Jenny's not a doctor, nurse, or EMT. She is not formally trained in CPR.
In fact, Jenny is a project manager for a creative agency tasked with designing a HeartStart AED App for Philips. It was her role in the development of this AED/CPR iPad®* application that proved the catalyst for her response to this dramatic event. "I had a HeartStart AED at my desk to learn the order of CPR voice-prompts to make certain the demos were correct," says Jenny. "When I bent down over the boy, that's what was running through my head. I went step-by-step through the checklist." Produced with the assistance of clinicians and experts from the American Heart Association (AHA), the HeartStart iPad® App is designed to promote awareness about the importance of the administration of CPR and use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) in the treatment of sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). | | 
Jenny Provenzano felt a sense of relief when the young boy began to breathe again. |
"I tried to do my best."
Jenny worked feverishly for several minutes, when finally the boy gasped for air. She was surprised. "I thought, oh my god it's working." Shortly thereafter EMS arrived, took over from Jenny, and sped the child away to the hospital.
"I felt an immense sense of relief and happiness," says Jenny. When Jenny's boyfriend called the fire station the next day, paramedics assured them the boy would recover.
Thinking back, Jenny credits her confidence and ability to respond to the HeartStart iPad® App. "If it wasn't for the Philips project, I don't think I would have been brave enough to know what to do - or even to try."
The app is FREE
* iPad® is a registered trademark of Apple corporation