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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.
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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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