Lebanon business owner searching for 'guardian angel' nurse who saved his life
Nora Shelly
As he does four times a week, Michael Byrd got up early on the morning of Thursday, Aug. 8, and laced up his shoes to go out for a run.
The 67-year-old planned to jog for his usual 45 minutes near the Lebanon apartment building where he stays once a week while running his business, Bake Crafters Food Company. Byrd lives in Chattanooga, Tennessee, the rest of the week, but he considers himself a "dual citizen" of Lebanon.
That morning, Byrd didn't make it back to his apartment as planned. At roughly 6:40 a.m., he collapsed on Creekside Drive near the intersection with Oak Street.
His heart had suddenly stopped working.
"Just like somebody turned the light out," he said in a recent interview.
Byrd — a grandfather of 13 who has competed in marathons and triathlons — doesn't have any memory of what happened. But he does know this: His guardian angel was there to save him.
Slim chances
Byrd was told a nurse spotted him while driving by and stopped to give him CPR and call 911. A few moments later, the paramedics arrived and rushed him to Good Samaritan Hospital.
The chances that the passerby who saw him collapse had the training to help him is not lost on Byrd.
"First of all, I see very few cars out there at that time of day," he said. "So for it to be a medical person, it's like my guardian angel was driving the car."
Bryan Smith, the executive director of First Aid and Safety Patrol in Lebanon, said it was critical in Byrd's case that the nurse was able to start CPR before paramedics arrived. Smith recommends everyone get trained in hands-only CPR in case they ever find themselves in a similar position.
Byrd had to be shocked twice with a defibrillator, but doctors were able to save his life. They weren't able to figure out why he went into cardiac arrest. They found no blockage in his arteries, and Byrd had passed a recent physical with flying colors.
Doctors at Good Samaritan told him 99 percent of the people in his situation don't survive.
"It's sobering, really," he said. "I'm thinking 'wow, okay I should really try hard to make the best of my time while I am alive.'"
Smith said Byrd was lucky to be so close to the hospital when he went into cardiac arrest. From the time the nurse called 911, it took just over 20 minutes for paramedics to arrive and get him to the hospital.
"This was the stars aligning for Mr. Byrd," Smith said.
After a few days at Good Samaritan, Byrd headed back to his other home in Tennessee the following on Sunday. By that Monday, he was back to work at his Chattanooga office.
But that's not to say he isn't still dealing with the impact.
"It has knocked the starts out of me a little bit, so I don't have as much gusto as I usually do," he said. "But I feel pretty good."
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Finding his 'guardian angel'
The cause of his cardiac arrest isn't the only mystery Byrd wants answers for — he also wants to find the nurse who saved his life.
He doesn't remember anything about the woman, who left the scene after paramedics arrived but before police got there.
Byrd is hoping he can track her down, and on Wednesday he found out that the EMTs had reached out the nurse to let her know he was trying to get in touch.
"I would want to give her a big hug and tell her 'thank you thank you thank you for doing the right thing,'" Byrd said. "This was a great act of mercy and kindness that she did."