‘She died in my arms for a second’: Lincoln man saves girlfriend’s life with CPR

LINCOLN, Neb. (KLKN) – A little over one week ago, a Lincoln couple learned just how important CPR can be.

Chelsea Walz began to feel strange one night at home.

She had no prior health concerns or any family history of heart conditions, so she thought she might be having a panic attack.

“I sat on the couch, and I thought, ‘Gosh, my left arm hurts all of a sudden,'” Walz said.

She looked it up on Google, which said it could be a heart attack.

“I was like, ‘I’m 32, I’m not having a heart attack. There’s no way,'” Walz said.

So she told Jake Miller, her boyfriend, what was going on.

Her heart was racing, so she asked him to listen.

“I was listening to her heartbeat and then all of a sudden, I realized I didn’t hear it anymore,” Miller said. “I looked up, and I realized she was unconscious.”

Miller said her name to try to wake her up, but when she didn’t, he called 911.

“She died in my arms for a second,” he said.

The operator said he needed to start CPR.

“I was doing compressions, not really knowing how much time was going by,” he said. “And then she finally took a breath.”

Walz had experienced what’s called SCAD, which stands for “spontaneous coronary artery dissection.”

Her coronary artery had a tear in it, and her blood thickened to try to repair it, but it caused a blockage.

She said the next thing she remembered was being in the intensive care unit.

“I remember waking up, and I think my thought was like, ‘Oh my God, Google was right,'” Walz said.

Miller did about six minutes of compressions, saving Walz’s life.

A CPR teacher said six minutes is a long time, and it’s more exhausting than you might think.

“When we’re doing our classes and we go for a minute, a minute and a half, people are breathing hard and they’re pretty tired already,” said Becky Loewe, an American Heart Association instructor at Bryan Health. “So that’s really impressive that he was able to do great CPR for six minutes.”

Miller said the 911 operator helped him through the compressions.

He said he can “still hear her voice” counting “1,2,3,4.”

Miller wasn’t certified, but he plans to take the course soon.

“Every single doctor that came in was like, ‘You’re the one that saved her life,'” Walz said. “And Jake doesn’t like the attention, but this time, it’s definitely worth it. He deserves it.”

Walz has recovered and just had her first day back at work on Wednesday.

The couple have a GoFundMe for hospital costs.

Miller joked with her, “I think you’re kind of stuck with me now.”