CPR saves lives. Recently, it saved one of our colleagues.

Jun. 4, 2025

By Mary Wade Burnside

A recent late April day started out normally at the Grafton-Taylor County Health Department, administrator Annie Kennedy said, with her friend and receptionist Jennifer Stolzenfels acting like her “normal, goofy self.”
Then, Stolzenfels looked like she was out of it, and a nurse yelled that something was wrong.
“By the time I got there, Jen was drawn up and stiff,” Kennedy said.
A retired nurse who happened to be at the health department started cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), while Kennedy grabbed one of two automated external defibrillators (AEDs) kept at the health department to shock her friend’s heart.
“After the second time, her color started to come back and you could see she was breathing on her own,” Kennedy said.
The health department has a system installed that, at the push of a button, alerts employees to an emergency and automatically dials 911. When EMS showed up, they had to shock Stolzenfels’ heart again.
Only 41, Stolzenfels was driven to the hospital. When she was taken off a ventilator three days later, she learned she has a condition called Torsades de Pointes, a life-threatening arrhythmia that can lead to cardiac arrest if not attended to quickly.
Stolzenfels’ treatment includes getting a defibrillator inserted into her chest. Soon she will begin cardiac rehab, and she’s working part-time as she builds up her strength.
Stolzenfels considers herself lucky that if her ordeal had to happen, it took place at the health department, where everyone knew CPR and could easily access an AED.
If it had occurred anywhere else, “I would not be alive,” she said.
The incident is still a sensitive subject for Kennedy and Stolzenfels, but the commencement of CPR & AED Awareness Week, which started on Sunday and runs through June 7, motivated them to tell the story.
At Monongalia County Health Department, CPR is one of the lifesaving practices that Joe Klass, chief of operations of the Threat Preparedness program, teaches to the community. The course takes around three to four hours and also includes instruction on how to operate an AED and how to save someone from choking using the Heimlich maneuver.
Klass, who is also a paramedic, can teach Heartsaver CPR, which is geared to community members, as well as Basic Life Support to medical personnel.
“There really aren’t a lot of differences between the two,” Klass said. “Basic life support goes into more detail on how to manage cardiac arrest in a health care setting, using a couple of tools that non-medical people don’t usually have access to.”
Individuals who take Klass’ training learn on both adult and infant mannequins, he noted.
According to the American Heart Association, “CPR is an emergency lifesaving procedure performed when the heart stops beating. Immediate CPR can double or triple chances of survival after cardiac arrest.”
Every year, according to the AHA, 350,000 people in the United States die from cardiac arrest, a number that can be improved as more individuals learn how to do CPR and also have access to equipment such as an AED.
Anyone who finds themselves in the position to help someone who has stopped breathing should first call 911. In addition to sending out an EMS unit, a dispatcher can also provide advice on how to perform CPR, Klass said.
Modern CPR was developed in 1960, although techniques have improved throughout the years.
There is even music that people can refer to in order to follow for the recommended rhythm while doing chest compressions, Klass said. As comically highlighted in a scene from the NBC TV show “The Office,” the best-known song is, coincidentally, “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee Gees. Spotify even has an entire CPR playlist of songs that work for CPR because the rhythm is 100 beats per minute.
“The big thing is, you never know when you might need it,” Klass said. “Everyone should have CPR training.”
Kennedy and Stolzenfels wholeheartedly agree. “We train for this to happen,” Kennedy said, “But you don’t train for it to be your own people.”
To learn more about CPR and how to organize a class, go to this link on the health department’s website: www.monchd.org/community-training#cpr.

Mary Wade Burnside is the public information officer at Monongalia County Health Department.