It was a boiling hot day last summer, four days after my\u00a0dad\u2019s 73rd birthday. Mum\u00a0was\u00a0plating up dinner and Dad\u00a0was on the sofa complaining about how stifling it was. I was meant to head to work, for my job as a\u00a0personal trainer, but decided to take the evening off. It was just as well: as I\u00a0turned back to Mum, Dad collapsed backwards and suffered a massive cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n
Mum was hysterical. She called the ambulance as I tried to stay calm but inside I felt mad with fear as she relayed what the 999 handler was saying. \u201cCheck if he\u2019s breathing,\u201d she told me. I put my hand on his chest but felt nothing. \u201cMove him to the floor.\u201d I\u00a0laid him on the wood flooring.<\/p>\n
The call handler told Mum to begin CPR. Dad was motionless as she pushed on his chest. I\u2019d attended first-aid training years ago, while working at a bowling alley, but remembered nothing. Something seemed off, though \u2013 the timing wasn\u2019t right. Then I remembered The Office.<\/p>\n
double quotation markI took over from Mum and played the scene and song in my head for 13 minutes, trying to resuscitate Dad<\/p>\n
Specifically, I remembered a scene in the US series where Steve Carell\u2019s character, Michael Scott, is being taught how to demonstrate CPR to the team, on a dummy, to the tune of the Bee Gees\u2019 Stayin\u2019 Alive. The episode, Stress Relief, is one of the show\u2019s best, with a chaotically funny cold opening in which Dwight purposefully triggers a fire alarm to prove his fire safety talk was ignored, prompting Stanley to have a heart attack. After Stanley has recovered, Michael brings in a CPR trainer, who offers a tip \u2013 that the rhythm of Stayin\u2019 Alive perfectly matches the rate at which you should administer CPR. The first aid is ignored as the team harmonise and dance to the Bee Gees, Andy bringing in the high-pitched lyrics. In my parents\u2019 living room, the bit I needed jumped to the front of my mind: \u201cAh,\u00a0Ah, Ah, Ah\u201d to compress Dad\u2019s chest, then rest on \u201cstayin\u2019 alive\u201d.<\/p>\n
I took over from Mum and played the scene and song in my head for 13 minutes, trying to resuscitate Dad. My arms were getting tired but occasional murmurs let me know he was still with us. I had no intention of stopping.<\/p>\n
As paramedics arrived and took over, they asked: \u201cWho did the CPR?\u201d \u201cMe,\u201d I said. \u201cYou\u2019ve done a brilliant job, you may have saved his life,\u201d they told me. As I went outside for some air, I thought: \u201cThey probably tell everyone that.\u201d As far as I was concerned, I\u2019d done everything I could but not in a million years was Dad pulling through.<\/p>\n
He did, though. He spent 57 days in a coma and four months in hospital with multiple surgeries. I visited every day. Medics would ask: \u201cHow did you learn CPR?\u201d And I told them: \u201cThe Office.\u201d<\/p>\n
I\u2019m a huge TV and film fan, especially superhero movies. I\u2019ve watched most of The Office three or four times; I find it comforting and Carell nails the cringe factor. Stress Relief is one of the best episodes: it takes something so mundane and makes it hilarious. That\u2019s what made me remember it that day.<\/p>\n
Just like The Office, where the team rallied round after Stanley\u2019s heart attack, members the gym I\u00a0work at, came together, too. It\u2019s near the hospital and many were involved in Dad\u2019s care: one was an anaesthetist, one did his tracheostomy and another gave him speech and language therapy. He\u2019s almost back to full health now but his recovery was rough.<\/p>\n
Without that episode of The Office, I\u00a0genuinely don\u2019t think I\u00a0could have performed CPR the way I\u00a0did. I\u2019m not the only one: in 2019, a\u00a0man in Arizona saved a woman\u2019s life by breaking into her car, pulling her out and delivering chest compressions to the tune of Stayin\u2019 Alive.<\/p>\n
At Dad\u2019s checkups, doctors still mention it; one of the medics I train recently messaged from a course to say\u00a0\u201c9% of people survive cardiac arrest out of hospital, most go on to\u00a0die, which puts your story into perspective\u201d. After all the superhero movies I\u2019ve watched, it\u2019s funny to\u00a0think it was Steve Carell and The\u00a0Office that helped to deliver my\u00a0heroics.<\/p>\n
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