Another issue I want to raise awareness about is the need for more individuals to be CPR & AED certified. (CPR – cardiopulmonary resuscitation, AED – automatic external defibrillator)
In April of 2026, we read an article about a student athlete in England who passed away from sudden cardiac death. The article said when the staff on site called emergency services, they were advised not to start a defibrillator. There is ZERO reason not to start a defibrillator if there is one available!
The defibrillators today are diagnostic. This means when you put on the patches, the AED reads the heart signals (or lack thereof) and gives you step by step instructions on whether to start CPR or send a shock.
If you are not CPR and AED trained, please get yourself trained! You just never know when you may be the first person to reach someone with cardiac arrest and their lives could lie in your hands. (Although I hope that never happens to anyone!)
When we found Caleb in his bed the morning of October 6, 2020, it was already too late to save him by doing CPR. We called 911 right away and did what they told us to do. I was ready to perform CPR, but the dispatcher on the line said the police were already in our driveway. That was how fast they arrived, and I am forever thankful for that. Even though I am CPR certified, I had always hoped I never have to perform CPR on anyone, and especially not on my own child. I am thankful I do not have the traumatic memory of performing CPR on my own child, to add to the already traumatic experience of not being able to wake up my 13-year-old. The police did start CPR right away, but they didn’t persist for long. I know they could tell it had been hours since he had passed.
Weeks after Caleb’s passing, I had a dream in which I performed CPR on a woman who was in a car accident, and ended up saving her life. My own interpretation of that dream is that it was probably a subconscious wish that I had had the opportunity to save my own son through CPR.
Caleb Walcott 