CPR training saves lives: A MultiCare employee’s story

When Sara Baydo, donor board coordinator at MultiCare Foundations, learned CPR 15 years ago, she never imagined she’d need to use her skills to save someone’s life.

But on April 15, 2023, Sara found herself faced with the unimaginable. That Saturday afternoon, she found her husband Mike unresponsive in the garage when the couple should have been on their way to a church event.

“It’s still so vivid in my memory,” Sara says of the moment she realized Mike desperately needed help. Immediately, her years of CPR training and annual recertifications kicked in.

For nine minutes, Sara performed CPR as she and her son waited desperately for medics to arrive.

Sara’s administration of CPR saved her husband’s life

Later, Sara and her family would find out that Mike’s heart stopped from stress, not a heart attack as she had originally suspected. The circumstances of his cardiac arrest made it so an automated external defibrillator (AED) would not have been effective. It was the CPR that gave Mike a chance at getting to the hospital to receive the care he needed.

After months of medication, training and rehabilitation, Mike returned home. He didn’t require heart surgery or stents. His heart essentially healed itself, which, for this faith-based family, was truly a miracle. 

Though Mike still lives with an anoxic brain injury, “the important thing is that he’s here,” Sara says.

“I’m so thankful that I had the training and knew what to do,” she adds. “Even if he didn’t make it, I would’ve known I gave him a chance to survive.”

Thanks to Sara’s training and quick thinking, Mike was able to walk their daughter down the aisle at her wedding months later.

Anyone can get CPR certified

Now, Sara has a passion for encouraging others to get CPR certified. She’s collaborating with the American Heart Association and participating in the Puget Sound Heart & Stroke Walk to help bring awareness to others.

“What’s a few hours out of your life to learn CPR?” she says. “You’ll know something that could save somebody’s life.”

Find a CPR training class near you

Though Sara admits performing CPR on a loved one is much different than learning with a mannequin, it’s most important to have the training and instinct to jump in and provide assistance.

She would later learn she broke 10 of her husband’s ribs while administering CPR — a sign, medics said, that she’d performed CPR properly.

“What’s a few broken ribs versus his life?” Sara says. “I realized I couldn’t be afraid (to start CPR) and I was not going to give up.”

Join Sara & MultiCare teams at Puget Sound Heart & Stroke Walk 

Sara is rallying her MultiCare colleagues to participate in the Puget Sound Heart & Stroke Walk in Tacoma on Saturday, Sept. 28. She’s team captain of the MultiCare Health Foundation team and a passionate champion for the cause.

“Being able to participate in the Heart & Stroke Walk and being around that energy is going to be so exciting,” she says. “Our family is so thankful we will be there to celebrate Mike as a survivor; we are so lucky.”