Since the late 1990s, the Montgomery County Hospital District has been reuniting cardiac arrest patients with the crews who saved them and newborn babies with the medical professionals who delivered them through Save and Stork reunions.

Ashton Herring, MCHD first responder and outreach coordinator, said MCHD responds to approximately 400 cardiac arrest calls annually, while they may only deliver five babies each year. Because such calls are often high-stress situations, Herring said, in many cases, patients are unaware of the crews who care for them, and the crews are unaware of whether a patient survived.

This prompted the idea of reunions for crews and their patients. 

“We really focus on cardiac arrest survivors because our crews put in a lot of hard work into those calls because the chances of survival are pretty bleak,” Herring said. “And we also focus on the babies we deliver because those calls are rare, and in the hustle and bustle of delivering a baby, you don’t necessarily get to experience the fun part of having a baby.” 

During a Save or Stork reunion, MCHD invites the patient, family and friends to attend the event. The district also invites everyone from the “chain of survival,” including the 911 operators and Emergency Medical Services crew as well as the firefighters and bystanders who may have provided aid. 

Herring said MCHD usually hosts anywhere from eight to 12 reunions annually, although the district hopes to host them more frequently in the future.

“We contact all of our cardiac patients and the families of the babies we deliver to see if they would like to have a reunion, but not everyone is interested in having one,” Herring said. “It truly is important to our crew to have that moment with a patient.”

Herring said the reunions are also an important education tool for MCHD, as they allow the crews to reflect on a specific case and discuss what was done correctly and incorrectly as well as what can be improved upon in the future.

While the national average for cardiac arrest survival is 12 percent, Herring said Montgomery County’s average has risen to 16 percent with the help of CPR training.

MCHD offers Heartsaver CPR/AED classes the first and third Thursday of every month from 6-9:30 p.m. and Basic Life Support CPR classes the first and third Saturday of every month from 8:30 a.m.-noon.

“Every minute that a cardiac arrest victim goes without CPR—their chance of survival decreases by about 10 percent,” Herring said. “So CPR makes a pivotal difference in someone’s survival.”