Bill proposes requiring 911 operators to be trained on tele-CPR

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. - Imagine your heart stops and no one around knows proper CPR.

Luckily, for one Orange County woman, the 911 dispatcher did and it probably saved her life, but not all operators are trained on CPR.

“I don’t think I would be here,” said Gretchen Ramos, cardiac arrest survivor.

It was a Tuesday night when Gretchen Ramos says the unthinkable happened.

The Orange County mother of three wasn’t feeling well, so she went to bed only to go into cardiac arrest minutes later.

Her daughters discovered her unconscious in her bedroom.

A.J. Seward, her daughter’s boyfriend, ran into the room when he heard the girls scream.

Cardiac arrest survivor Gretchen Ramos.  (FOX 35 Orlando)

“When we turned her over, that’s when we saw her face turn blue,” said A.J. Seward, Gretchen’s daughter’s boyfriend.

Gretchen’s daughter called 911 and the Orange County Fire Rescue dispatcher who answered the call knew exactly what to do.

“We picked her up, put her on the floor right here, and this is where I performed CPR,” Seward said.

The operator walked A.J., step-by-step through CPR while they waited for first responders.

“On about the second rotation of me breaking and starting again, that’s when Ms. Michelle [Gretchen] had a breath,” Seward said.

Gretchen gained consciousness.

“That has to be one of the most nerve-racking calls to receive to have somebody’s loved one on the other end of the line and to stay calm and to walk them through how to accurately perform CPR,” said Lasonia Landry, executive director of American Heart Association in Orlando.

Landry says the first minutes after someone’s heart stops is critical.

“You can double or triple a person’s survival rate by just providing hands-on CPR,” Landry said.

But, 911 operators are not required by the state to be trained on tele-CPR as of now.

Senate Bill 1014, authored by Senator Darryl Ervin Rouson of the Tampa-area, is making its way through the legislative process in Tallahassee.

The bill would require all operators to undergo tele-CPR training every two years.

“Any of us could be Gretchen Ramos,” Landry said, “so we want to make sure that the person who answers the other end of the line can walk us through how to effectively perform CPR.”

Gretchen is counting her blessings.

“I’m extremely grateful and thankful that they were all here. It’s just one of those things where everyone was at the right place at the right time,” Ramos said.

Gretchen hopes to meet the dispatcher who saved her life.

“I wish that I could say ‘thank you,' just a thank you because that first responder was that 911 dispatcher,” Ramos said.

Gretchen was diagnosed with a heart defect.

She has since had several surgeries and is feeling great.

The tele-CPR bill is still in committee.

FOX 35 News will let you know what happens with the bill.