WSU student dubbed ‘Walking Miracle’ to graduate alongside rescuer

WEBER, Utah — A Weber State University student is dubbed the ‘Walking Miracle’ after surviving cardiac arrest.

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Audrey Young planned on meeting her friend for lunch. As she walked into the restaurant, she collapsed.  Fellow respiratory therapy student, Allie Green, raced into action and performed CPR until first responders arrived. Two good Samaritans checked Young’s pulse and breathing and helped do chest compressions.

“From looking at her airways and down at her chest, she wasn’t breathing and so CPR was the most important thing at the time,” said Green.

First responders arrived and had to shock Young twice before she was stable enough to be transported to a hospital.  Miraculously, Young was coherent and talking later that day. According to doctors, she could have had brain damage from loss of oxygen if not for the CPR efforts.

“There’s a good chance that I either, wouldn’t have made it, or I would have had a lot more long-term problems,” said Young.

The “Walking Miracle”

Young was diagnosed with a condition that causes lethal arrhythmia if her body endures too much physical or emotional stress.

The two students have been close throughout college but now they are bonded for life. Green attributes her knowledge of life-saving measures to everything she’s learned in the respiratory therapy program.

“I think without the underlying training that I had, I would’ve completely frozen. I wouldn’t have known what to do,” said Green.

Young  says she feels like she has a second shot at life and she’s proud to be a first-generation college graduate. Both Young and Green are applying to work at the same hospitals.

Related:

• What are cardiac arrest, heart attack and heart failure?
• Cardiac arrest top killer for student athletes
• Be Ready Utah: CPR training