Terrence Parker
Terrence Parker (left), a Fort Worth police officer, survived a heart attack and is now advocating others get CPR and AED training.
On a rainy day in May of this year, Terrence Parker, a recruitment officer for the Fort Worth Police Department, had just finished loading a recruiting vehicle for an event when he went into cardiac arrest.
“I have no idea what happened,” recounts Parker, a police officer and army vet who’s seemingly the picture of health. “I remember walking into the bathroom, and then I remember waking up in the hospital.”
As Parker explains, despite having no prior symptoms and no chest pain, he had experienced a heart attack due to 100% blockage in his left anterior descending (LAD) artery — what doctors commonly refer to as the “widow maker.” Thanks to fast action by fellow officers, who administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and used a defibrillator after discovering Parker slouched and unresponsive, he survived.
“I was clinically dead for 15 minutes,” Parker says.
Parker’s experience is both a frightening reminder that cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time, and that you never know when being trained in CPR can end up saving someone’s life. According the American Heart Association, 436,000 Americans die each year from cardiac arrest, and 100,000 to 200,000 of those lives could be saved if CPR were performed early enough.
Spreading knowledge about this important, life-saving skill, Parker, along with other members of the Fort Worth Police Department and Fort Worth Fire Department, is teaming up with the Fort Worth Public Library to offer free CPR training classes between Sunday, Sept. 29 and Friday, Oct. 4 across seven public library locations. And all classes will be available in English and Spanish. (See below for details)
“We always want our residents to call 9-1-1 in a medical emergency,” says Craig Trojacek, public information officer at the Fort Worth Fire Department. “But we also want teens and adults in Fort Worth to feel confident in how to use life-saving tools like AEDs and know how to perform CPR until our firefighters, paramedics or EMTs can arrive.”
According to a press release, the classes are designed for teens and adults and available on a first-come-first-serve basis.
“I’m a firm believer that people should, on a regular basis, as often as they can, take CPR class, take an AED class," Parker says, "because you never know when you’re going to be that person to save somebody else’s life.”
Upcoming CPR/AED classes:
Sunday, Sept. 29 at 1 pm – Southwest Regional Library
Sunday, Sept. 29 at 4 pm – East Regional Library
Monday, Sept. 30 at 6:30 pm – Northwest Library
Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 pm – Diamond Hill/Jarvis Library
Wednesday, Oct. 2 at 6:30 pm – Vivian J. Lincoln Library
Thursday, Oct. 3 at 6:30 pm – Ella Mae Shamblee Library
Friday, Oct. 4 at 5 pm – Golden Triangle Library
