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Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Shoreline native credits King's High School and a television show for helping him save a friend's life

Nick & Shayla Bauer, Chris Wessels, Samantha Dellenoci, Jeffrey Weber. September 2023
at Newport Beach, California. Photo courtesy Weber family.

By Diane Hettrick

Jeffrey Weber, son of Mark and Karen Weber of Richmond Beach, graduated from King's High School in 2019. While at King's, he took a class in CPR, not imagining how important it would be to him later.

Jeffrey Weber at Newport Beach
Photo courtesy Weber family
He graduated from Chapman University in Orange County, California in May of 2023 and is currently living and working in Southern California. He and a group of friends regularly enjoy surfing on California beaches.

A month ago they were out in the water at a remote beach when Jeffrey's friend Chris Wessels said he felt faint and collapsed on his surfboard. 

Jeffrey and another friend wedged Wessels' board between them and, with difficulty, got him to shore.

They got him to the sand and Jeffrey, recalling his high school class, started CPR. 

As he did, an episode of The Office came to mind, where the lead character was practicing CPR on a dummy to the rhythm of the Bee Gee's song "Staying Alive." 

“Ah, ah ah ah, stayin’ alive, stayin’ alive…” 

He followed that rhythm, spelled by friends and passersby until first responders could arrive.

Wessels was without his own heartbeat for 45 minutes. He has a very long recovery ahead of him but he is alive because of Jeffrey and others. 

They now plan to set up a CPR class so others can have those life-saving skills. 


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1 comment:

  1. AnonymousMarch 5, 2024 at 12:24 PM

    Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) is the leading cause of death in exercising young athletes, happening every 2 days in the US. Most have hidden cardiac abnormalities with no warning signs until suffering an SCA. The Nick of Time Foundation in partnership with the UW Center For Sports Cardiology conducts ON-SITE heart screenings for adolescents and young adults ages 12-24. The vision of Nick of Time Foundation is to increase awareness about sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and how it affects children and young adults with the goal of saving lives through SCA education and awareness, the formation of school and community emergency action plans that include CPR/AED training, ECG youth heart screenings, volunteer opportunities, and scientific research. Nick of Time Foundation was recently honored by Seattle Kraken Hockey with the Hero of the Deep Award, which honors inspiring individuals who are doing outstanding work to transform lives, enable resiliency, and uplift and unite our community across the Pacific Northwest. For more info and to donate: https://nickoftimefoundation.org/

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