“It came as a total surprise.  I never had heart problems.  In fact, I had just had stress test that showed no blockage, no coronary disease.”

Yet on November, 1, 2006, Maxwell King died – for only a few moments, fortunately – of sudden cardiac arrest.  He’s around to tell the tale today because of the quick thinking of the people with him that day, and because of a nearby Automated External Defibrillator (AED) that shocked his heart back to life.

“I had walked to a meeting at the Carnegie Museum of Art,” said King, who serves as the head of the Heinz Endowments.  “I collapsed in the middle of my presentation from an arrhythmia, an electrical problem with my heart.  I don’t remember any of it.  Later I learned that at first I was rigid, tense, and breathing raggedly, then my eyes closed and I stopped breathing – I had died.”

Assistant curators in the room started CPR, while the museum director ran downstairs to get the AED.  Even though no one there was trained on how to use the AED, they grabbed it, opened it, and followed the voice prompts through all the steps.  Within 2.5 minutes of the initial collapse, a single shock had been administered and proved all that was needed to bring King’s heart back into the world of the living.  He still had not started breathing again, though, so mouth-to-mouth resuscitation was done next.  All of these emergency steps were taken by non-medically trained people who happened to be with King when the unthinkable happened.

“The rescue EMTs didn’t get there for 15 minutes,” he said.  “I would have been a goner without the AED and those people who knew what to do.  There’s a less-than 5 percent chance of survival without an AED.  I’m so extremely lucky that I survived without harm.”

King attributes his amazing revival to the PULSE program, which has since been aligned with St. Margaret Foundation’s existing AED network.  He said an AED has since been installed at the Heinz Endowments, and he’s been trained in CPR and how to use the AED.

“What an extremely valuable piece of technology that saves people’s lives over and over,” he said.  “It’s a brilliant design, anybody who grabs it in an emergency can use it easily and safely.  The amazing thing about the heart is that once it stops through arrhythmia, it can go back to normal if restarted quickly.

“Having gotten help so quickly has allowed me to get back to regular life in every respect,” he said.  “I’m biking and kayaking now, like nothing ever happened.  What a gift.  I can’t put into words how grateful I am.”  In fact, King has made a personal gift to PULSE, matched by the Heinz Endowments.

“I feel a compelling need to give back,” he said.  “I had a personal experience that woke me up, so I really admire people like those at St. Margaret Foundation and PULSE who are pushing the AED program into the community.”