Aug. 18--When Gina Bohanan took her children to a CPR class earlier this year, she had no idea that she'd be using the information just two weeks later to save her 15-year-old son's life.
The CPR class was given through the Carmen Burnette CPR Education Fund, which is in memory of an EMT who was determined to educate as many laypeople as possible in the life-saving skill of CPR. Bohanan, a homeschooling mother, took her children to the class on April 29, she recalls--never dreaming that it would become so vitally important, so soon.
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It was an ordinary night in the Bohanon house, May 16. Everyone was bustling around, getting ready to go to the Red Boiling Springs High School graduation. Bohanon and her husband, Macon County Deputy Jason Bohanan, have four children: Jase, 15, Justin, 11, Jordan, 9, and Jessica, 6.
Jase was born prematurely, weighing 1 lb, 13 oz. His first three months were spent at Vanderbilt. He has high functioning autism, but no other major problems. At age four, he began to experience very serious seizures. Having been put on medication, however, it had been nearly ten years since he'd had one.
Nobody saw it coming.
As they were about to leave, Bohanon was corralling her kids and three foster children to the door when she noticed that Jase was missing from the group.
"That's when it hit me," said Gina. "I just knew that something was wrong."
Later she realized that she had walked in his room twice within ten minutes, once to call for him and once to turn the light off. Jase had been on the floor of the closet the whole time.
"I ran up there, and there was a chair knocked over in front of the closet door," said Gina. "When I saw that chair I thought--he's in that closet."
Jase had gone into the small walk-in closet to get clothes for that night. In the back of the closet, he had collapsed into a seizure. When Gina found him, his face was completely blue and he wasn't breathing or responding. There was little blood from where he'd hit his face going down.
"When I found him I knew immediately what had happened," said Gina, adding that his childhood seizures were also very severe and completely deprived him of oxygen. She told her husband to call 911, and began to do the CPR that was still fresh on her mind from two weeks earlier.
"The words just kept going through my head, the things they'd taught us. We have to get air in, get air in... keep your fingers where they won't cut off the airway..."
Jase was gasping, she said, but she'd learned in the class that gasping is just the body trying to survive, and won't provide enough oxygen for the body to live on. His fingers, she said, were blue up to the knuckle.
Because of a shortage of ambulance units that night, it would take the paramedics 47 minutes to arrive. This was much, much longer than any of them could have anticipated.
So the family kept Jase alive the only way they knew how.
Gina continually did rescue breathing, while her sister-in-law, Kim Shaw, checked his pulse and her mother-in-law, Rosemary Russell, kept fingers on his chest to make sure that the air was going in. Her husband continued to keep contact with the ambulance dispatchers and manage the six other children in the house.
At about 40 minutes in, an off-duty paramedic named Randy Carter who had been listening to the calls come over the radio showed up, bringing much needed oxygen and equipment. This was about the time that Jase had a second seizure. They administered medicine and oxygen, and according to Gina, his color began to return. A few minutes later, the ambulance arrived.
"By the time they were loading him in, he was fighting them a little bit," said Gina. They airlifted him to Vanderbilt, and he is fine today. He's been back on his medicine ever since.
On July 11, Gina and Jase were presented with the first Carmen Burnette CPR Education Fund "Everyday Hero" Award. The award was presented by the late Carmen Burnette's son, Brandon Burnette, and another CPR instructor.
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Jase has actually had another episode since this one, just last Sunday in the early hours of the morning. This time, his siblings and mother worked together to get him medicine, and get the paramedics to the house.
"Saturday night, [9-year-old] Jordan chose to sleep upstairs with his brother for safety," said Gina "and about 5:30 Sunday morning, I heard footsteps coming down the hall, and it was my 9-year-old, and he was screaming 'Mama Mama come upstairs it's Jase.' Sure enough he's in a seizure.
"This time I'm prepared. I've got what I need, I got get the medicine. My 9 year old called 911, and my 11 year old went and got the bag of oxygen. Jason was on duty Sunday morning, so he heard the 911 call to come to his home on the radio. I hated that for him, but there was no way to avoid it."
Jase was taken to the hospital and is fine, but Gina is thinking of getting an alarm system for him, for peace of mind.
"I was just so proud of my kids and how they reacted!" Gina concluded. "When everything was over I looked at them and said 'guys! You are awesome. We got this, we can do this.' I'm so glad I've got kids who can watch out for their brother and know what's going on."
It doesn't hurt, either, that they know CPR.
Copyright 2013 - Macon County Times, Lafayette, Tenn.
