lifesaving skills,dr sabine elisee, cardiac arrest, lunch and learn

LLP131: Why You Should Learn These Lifesaving Skills with Dr. Sabine Elisee

Let's talk about lifesaving skills…

On this week's episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry we have Dr. Sabine Elisee, a Board-Certified Family Medicine Physician, the CEO and co-founder of Cornerstone Medical Group Inc. Not only is she fellowship-trained in Hospice Palliative but one of her best attributes is that she is a former classmate of mines and close friend.

Today she joins the podcast to discuss one of the most important lifesaving skills that we are imploring that everyone learns ASAP. Dr. Elisee goes through two different scenarios where she was able to use these lifesaving skills to ensure that someone made it home to their loved ones.

Check out today's episode to find out exactly what these life-saving skills are.

Text LUNCHLEARNPOD to 44222 to join the mailing list.

Remember to subscribe to the podcast and share the episode with a friend or family member.

Listen on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, Soundcloud, iHeartRadio, Spotify

Sponsors:

Links/Resources:

Social Links:

If you are looking to help the show out

  • Leave a Five Star Review on Apple Podcast because your ratings and reviews are what is going to make this show so much better
  • Share a screenshot of the podcast episode on all of your favorite social media outlets & tag me or add the hashtag.#lunchlearnpod

Download Episode 131 Transcript

[showhide type=””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””post”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” more_text=””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””Episode 131 Transcript…”””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””” less_text=””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””Show less…””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””””] Introduction Dr. Berry: Welcome to another episode of the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. I'm your host, Dr. Berry Pierre, your favorite Board Certified Internist. Founder of drberrypierre.com, as well the CEO of Pierre Medical Consulting. Helping you empower yourself for better health with the number one podcast for patient advocacy, education and affirmation. This week we bring you episode with another former classmate of mine, Dr. Sabine Elisee, who is a board certified family physician. She is also CEO and co-founder of Cornerstone Medical Group, as well as being fellowship trained in Hospice Palliative Care. Dr. Sabine Elisee is going to be educating us on a lifesaving skill today that she feels that everyone must know and having a back pocket. And when we say everyone, not just those in the health career field, know everyone. And this is a simple one that can be such a tool. This is one where if you know it, you can be above the rest and you can be the reason why someone's able to go home to their family. So again, I'm not gonna tell you what the lifesaving skill is because I want you to let Dr. Sabine Elisee tell you. But I want you to also listen to two amazing stories that she gives us when she talks about how she was able to use this lifesaving skill to help someone else go home to their family members. So I can't wait for you to check this episode out. Again, this is definitely one that definitely hits home for me. So definitely again checked the episode out because you’ll know how I went to listen to episode. So like always, if you had not had a chance, remember, subscribe to the podcast. Leave us a five star review, let Dr. Sabine Elisee know exactly how she did on today's episode as well as tell a friend or even tell 10 friends to listen today's a podcast episode. Leave us five star reviews again, especially for my Apple podcast users. So without further ado, let's get ready for another amazing episode here on the Lunch and Learn with Dr. Berry. Episode Dr. Berry: Alright Lunch and Learn community, you just heard another amazing introduction for a guess who's a friend, former classmate, and really just an amazing person who once us by the end of this episode to make sure we understand that everyone should have this lifesaving skill that is something that I'm almost sure you seen on TV you read about. You didn't really think you'd ever come face to face with it, but she actually came not even face to face but her family members in the thick of things and had to apply this lifesaving skills. So by the end of this episode, you're going to see how important this level of a lifesaving skill is for everyone. So before, I obviously want to thank Dr. Sabine Elisee for jumping on the Lunch and Learn podcast with us today. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Absolutely. Thank you so much for having me Dr. Pierre. It's always a pleasure coming on for you with the Lunch and Learn community who loves to come in and learn. I love it. Dr. Berry: Perfect and Lunch and Learn community you may have heard before because she actually got us right, I want to say about a year or so ago when we were talking about the flu. Y'all know, we're still on that flu. Get your flu shot. Now we'll get that disclaimer right out the way, get your flu shot please. Get your flu shots. Before we get into the thick of things, I have a lot of guests who like to just skip right to this main episode. They usually skip your bio. Tell them something that may not be in your bio, but something they feel that they should know before they finish listening to this episode about yourself. Dr. Sabine Elisee: I'm the doctor who listens. I think that's the biggest thing. And I think that a lot of us make the mistake of just allowing us to fall into a doctor's office or just any medical office. Because it's not always a doctor seeing you are right versus the reality of you taking an active role in choosing your physician. And I think that that's one of the biggest things that a lot of people don't realize. I'm very passionate about the necessity to make sure it is a good fit and not just choosing someone from the yellow pages. People still use yellow pages or just Google searching or whatever. You really need to make sure that it is a good fit for the physician that you choose to take care of you because it's a partnership. It's something that Dr. Pierre and I spoke about while we were in the thick of things in medical school about really connecting with our patients and really making sure our patients know what's going on. And just from the flip side of that, having parents and family members who came from different countries and being seen by doctors where there was either a language barrier or there was a cultural barrier, there was a lack. There was just disjointed care. But particularly here in the South Florida community, there is no reason for that whatsoever. There's a doctor out there that is a perfect fit for you. And I encourage everyone in the Lunch and Learn community to make sure it is a perfect fit for you. Whoever it is that you choose to be your physician, because you need to be able to ask them questions, get those answers and feel comfortable speaking about every and anything under the sun. Dr. Berry: Those are such true words, again, especially in this day and age where you have patients who are allowing just insurance companies that randomly choose a physician form who's really in charge of your life. We are not even being hyperbole with it. The person who's in charge of your everyday living and healthy wellbeing, it should be one of the most important decisions that you make. And I think what we've seen, especially over these years, is that a lot of people don't put a lot of faith and a lot of stock into that level of decision making. So I'm glad that you're really out here saying no. If I'm the one for you, I'm gonna make sure I'm the one for you. But if I'm not, I'm just not. Because at the end of the day, it is all about you. Remember the goal here Lunch and Learn, empower yourself for better health. That's really the goal, right? You have to empower yourself. But again, you gotta find a person who's gonna match with you and get on your level of care. So again, thank you for those amazing words for sure. I told you Lunch and Learn community, she's an amazing person. That's how she jumps off right out the gate of getting us hype. Absolutely love it. So Dr. Sabine Elisee, please tell us again this, because I've been teasing them. I haven't told them what it is, but I've been teasing them about this lifesaving skill that you feel and I feel too. But you feel personally that we all should have. And you've actually come into, again, we alluded to it, rarely really close contact to having to actually use saving skills. So talk to us a little bit about that and we'll get into your business about when it first began and what's your goal with everything said and done. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Absolutely. So I do not appreciate that your tease in the Lunch and Learn community, they've been so good. But you know what, I'm glad that you did in the sense of raising just the curiosity of what this life savings still is. And truth be told, I actually came in contact with it twice within the same year. One time in July, July 4th, 4th of July. And then literally again, October 1st. But it was different in October 1st. So what is this life saving skill? I'm not gonna do what Dr. Berry did to you. Dr. Berry: I don't tease them though. Get it out already. Dr. Sabine Elisee: You get it out. Lifesaving skill is CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation, CPR. And in April of last year, 2018, I was listening to another doctor speak and that doctor was just mentioning, hey, do you think that CPR is a skill that everyone should learn the way people get their learner's permit? Like a rites of passage? And I kid you not, Dr. Pierre, I chuckled. I was pish posh. Dr. Berry: I was gonna ask, what were your thoughts when you first heard it that that first time around. Dr. Sabine Elisee: I was pish posh. I'm a friend of Dr. Pierre, so I had that little bit of conspiracy theory in my mind, right? So I'm thinking like, ah, they're just trying to make more money. Is that really necessary for everyone to learn CPR? Because it completely makes sense if you're in the medical fields that you should learn this and you should know it. But I tell you in April, 2018 I said, maybe not, maybe it's not necessary for everyone to know. And then July 4th happened. I was like, hey, maybe everyone should know this. And then October 1st happened and I said, absolutely. Underscore, underline, bold exclamation marks, yes, yes, everyone should learn this and there should be a push to make this truly a like a rites of passage. You're graduating high school? Let’s find some way to add that into the curriculum. I know that we talk a lot about FCAT if you're in Florida or just all the standardized testing and that's wonderful. But just think about CPR and what this is called. It's a lifesaving skill. If you need anything in life, you would need this life saving skill. So what was the difference for me on October 1st and I don't know how much time that we have, because I want to give you the story of everything that happened. Dr. Berry: The floor is yours. You tell us. Dr. Sabine Elisee: So it was October 1st. I'm here in South Florida putting the kids to bed. It was a Monday night. And you know, if you're a mom or if you have small kids, what is Monday night mean? Signing off on papers, checking backpacks and you're setting up lunches. I have three kids. So we had three lunchboxes out. My husband was upstairs and he runs downstairs and he's like, your sister's trying to reach you. I thought that was odd because my sister and my parents left the day before to Paris, so they were literally in Europe and it's like 10 o'clock at night here. So it's 3:00 AM the following morning in Paris. And Dr. Pierre, there are things that happen in life that you literally never forget. It feels like time stands still. (The date, the time). The time, things that you don't even think that you'll pay attention to, but it just does. And when time called my sister, she said, dad's not breathing. He's not responding to his name and we don't even feel his pulse. Pray. That's all she said. And needless to say, my mind was in a panic. Now she ended up dropping the call and she just said, I'm running downstairs now. So she's at the hotel and she's running downstairs now too. Try to figure out what's going on or try to call some type of EMS. Dr. Berry: Were you the first call? Dr. Sabine Elisee: I had the first call. So if you are the physician in your family, it doesn't matter what it is, you're the first call for everything. You're the first call even if they have a physician. And even sometimes while they're sitting at physician's office, you're still the first call. And that's a beautiful thing. Because I know for myself that was one of the biggest reasons why I went into medicine because I want to know the answers. I want to be able to give someone the answers. I want to know what's going on. And that's why I'm so passionate like you Dr. Pierre about educating people. Let them know what's going on. Put them in the know. This isn't some secret code and jargon that we speak when we're in the doctor's office. This is your health. We need to know what's going on in your body. So that was one of my biggest reasons of saying I need to become a physician because I want to know everything that's going on so that I could do what I did October 1st to be able to provide some guidance and some instructions. So Tonya gave my mom the phone and what some of you may not know is I'm also fellowship trained in hospice palliative care. So I come in contact with death a lot. So my mom's on the phone and it's 3:00 AM in Paris and she said Sabine, your father's not breathing, he's in a cold sweats. I don't know what's going on. Mom is a nurse, a registered nurse, but she's been away from the bedside for years. And at this point we're on WhatsApp. Thank God for WhatsApp. So we're on WhatsApp. I'm videoing her and it almost looked like those scary movies because she's like this close to the camera and you just the whites of her eye. And I said, mom, turn the camera and let me face it. Dr. Pierre, this is a, an image in my mind that I will never forget. Um, my dad was foaming at the mouth. His, uh, eyes were just wide open, just stuck that way. And you could see him biting down just almost, just tight. His entire body was tight. (You gonna watch this on video). I'm watching this on video. I'm watching this on video. And so immediately, you go back to your roots, right? So literally I was just like, Jesus, Lord spare my dad's life. And then you get into move. And if those of you who are familiar with Cornerstone Medical Group, the company and medical offices that we've opened down here in Florida Springs were about physical, spiritual, and cognitive health, bringing it all together. And there's that necessity there that I have to add in here. I'm going to call Jesus. That's what I do. But that's the spiritual component. But now what's the physical component? Now I need to put into place everything that I've learned physically and my know-how and knowledge what I've been educated to do and make a move on it. Dr. Berry: How difficult is that knowing that you physically can't touch your dad? You’re visually seeing all of this, but physically not being able to be there in the room seeing this in face to face. How difficult of a transition was that just from when you're going through your move? Dr. Sabine Elisee: I think in the reality of it, Dr. Pierre, is that when you need to do what you need to do, you just do it. You don't have the time to think about what's gonna happen. You are thinking about what will not happen. So when I saw my dad, I literally was like, you will not die tonight. And that was it. I didn't question it. I didn't wonder about it and why. So I called Jesus and I got my skillset. I paid attention when I went to CPR. I paid attention when we learned those lifesaving skills. I may have been annoyed in all the recertification that you just gotta keep on having and keep on doing because you're like, do I really need this? Is this really necessary? How many times we have to go through this? But because that skill set is there and it was practice, it just comes out. You don't even think about it. It's like the way you breathe, it just comes out. And you know people speak about this a lot when they are jumping in lakes to save children who are drowning. When they feel like they have the strength of 10 men to flip over a car and pull someone out of it. You don't have time to think about, can I do this or what can I do? All you think about is this is what's going to happen and this is what we have to do right now. So I asked my mom right then and there. She said, she's like, I don't know what to do and I'm like, mom, this is what's going to happen. Because see dad was foaming at the mouth. We're thinking about aspiration. So I said mom rolls him over to his side first and at this point she drops the phone. So now I'm having just to see the movement of the phone on the bed to have an idea. And now I Dr. Berry: So now the visual component is gone. Dr. Sabine Elisee: And I hear her saying Sabine, he's like dead weight. He’s dead weight and that cannot budge him. I can't move him. It's as if he was in the shower, was completely wet and just plucked himself on the bed. Because now he's soaking wet as well too. She's describing to me. And at that point I told mom, pick up the phone. I was like, mom, you have to start CPR right now. You've got to start it right now. And prior to that she was telling me that she didn't feel the pulse. So I told her, go to the carotids. So is it a look and see if there's any breadth? Nothing at all. And what she did do, she started pulling her skills. So mom's been outside of the bedside from earthing for over 15 years now. And what she did was just start thinking about, well, is this a seizure? So she found whatever pen that she could find and just put it right at his mouth so that he couldn't bite down and drip down, that I didn't think about but she thought about it. And then she did it. And then I said, mom, start compressions. That's it. And this is the key thing about this, Dr. Pierre you might remember when we were in medical school, we learned ABC, right? Airway, breathing, circulation. But now that has changed to CAB, and that's circulation. I also think about it as compressions. So from my dad, my mom did compressions alone. Compressions alone, that's all she did. When she finally got to the point where she says she's starting again, she had to drop the phone. And so there are certain things that you'll never forget, like I mentioned. So I think the most horrible sound I've ever heard in my life was that sound that I heard that night. To hear my mom with each compression as she's pushing down, because I'm looking at the phone vibrate on the bed to judge how fast she's going and the depth, because I have no visual, right? But I have to see how the push and I have to see how far it's falling to get an idea of is she going fast enough and is she going deep enough? So CPR, we know on the adults we got to go two inches down. So I just gaging in that, and we know that we need to going at to be going at a speed that's a hundred to 120 compressions per minute. So that's roughly 30 compressions for every 15, 18 seconds. That's where that music comes in. That's what we want. So that's what I'm looking at. But the sound that I heard with each compression is my mom just literally screaming, Jesus, Jesus cheat with each one. So now she's going and I have to remain cool. I don't have time to worry about what will happen or what could happen. I don't have the luxury to panic. I also think that this is the skillset that you learn in residency as a resident when you're learning to run a code. Dr. Berry: I was honestly, I was really about to ask you that question because I mean that sound that literally sounds like what you have to do in that situation. Where even on the inside, you're probably screaming Jesus right along with her, but verbally and you just have to still be in the moment as a physician and as a person who's leading this process, which you were doing from a different country but still be calm enough to say, no, you know what, that's how you need to do it. Press harder. So I was really about to ask you that question. Did it feel like when you were back in residency, having a run in code and being in that situation where like the whole room may seem frantic around you, but you're steadfast in your waist. Dr. Sabine Elisee: One of the things that we have as residents and Dr. Pierre, you'll know this as well too, from your experience or any other physicians that are listening on the Lunch and Learn, is that in your first year you may not be the one running the code, but you are there observing the code and you are in the cycle to do compressions. And I'll never forget, one of the first codes that I attended was with our pulmonologists and intensivists in Belle Glade medical. And it was Dr. Boone. And the place was frantic, everything was going wrong, but he remained calm and he remained sure and he remains confidence. So even if someone wasn't giving something immediately, he just made sure that there was an atmosphere of calmness and encouragement. And I remember in that first code that I ran, I looked at that and I said, I want to be just like that. I want to make sure that whatever chaos is going on around me, when I'm running a code, I am as the leader, making sure I remain calm. Because if I'm a leader and I'm remaining calm, then everyone else is going to remain calm too. And that's what we have to do. And I'll tell you, it's the reality of something that we need to do in life, right? So chaos could be all around us, but it's up to us to make that decision to remain calm. And I noticed that on October 1st when mom was doing those compressions, I could hear her voice begin to change and be less anxious. As I start saying, you're doing great mom, this flow is good. Keep pushing. They're going to be there any minute. I have no idea where they were because we were like five minutes in and Tanya, my sister hadn't come back upstairs yet with the EMS and my mom still pushing the compressions and she's there doing it alone. No one else there with here on a soft bed. But as I continue to tell them, I know as I continue to tell mom, you're doing great, mom, keep going. That's it. Keep that beat, keep that beat. And that's one point I start snapping to get her in that beat. Mom, you got this, you're doing great. Keep going. And I have her pause. Check for that pulse. Not, okay, good. Let's keep going because that's what we're doing. We're going to keep that blood flowing to dad's brain. Every time we keep this blood flowing to dad's brain, then that's way we ensure that it's getting to the rest of the body. That's the way that we ensure that there won't be any brain damage with this. So mom's like a rock star was able to pull that off, but you know, I want to add right here of why was she able to pull that off? She was able to pull that off because she was able to pull something that she learned from years ago. But if she never learned that, and I had to start saying, listen, find the sternum. Get between the nipple line. If that's her first time ever having to do this, you're already in a frightful situation and now you're having to do something you've never been in contact with before and someone's life depends on it. Dr. Berry: What was interesting because obviously as a resident we're typically taking care of other patients’ family members. So the someone that she's taken care of is her husband, you’re a father. Again, I don't have to sugar coat, I know adds even more level anxiety and pressure upon a situation that's already pressure filled. (Yeah). The fact that she was able to pull back and say, oh okay, I remember doing this and she had at least a baseline. Again, it may not have been current at that time, but at least a baseline of how to do this. You feel definitely was a much easier that progression as far as from taking direction and command. Dr. Sabine Elisee: It made all the difference and not a difference of hey, it made it better. It's a life and death difference. And it's what you said, it's so key. I like that. It's the baseline. She had some type of baseline. She had something to revert to. She had something that she learned in her past years, a skillset that she learned years ago that could provide a baseline. And that's the reality that all of us need to understand and know that this baseline is not just there for individuals who are nurses or doctors or going into medicine. This baseline is here for you. It's there for you. The lay people, the people who are just, whether they are teachers, are swimming instructors or a grandmother who's watching their grandchild. If you are someone who is a custodial worker, whatever it may be, that's a baseline. And Dr. Pierre both of us, we were able to get our Master’s in Public Health. And one of the biggest things I know that I remember in public health was my takeaway point is that, everyone could learn. You may not have the best of science skills and some people are better with their hands and some people are more theoretical in thought. But what we do know is that everyone can learn. That's the beauty of our brain. So this skillset is something everyone should learn. So now it's about 10 minutes later, 10 minutes Dr. Pierre. Mom's still going, still going. We're going into 13 minutes now. And then finally someone walks in. That's when the medics walk in at that point. And like I said, these are those of miracles that happen. WhatsApp, you dropped calls constantly with WhatsApp. Here in United States when someone's down the street right upstairs and downstairs the call drops. Would you know that line was never dropped. That was like a 20 minute conversation. The line was never dropped whatsoever. Not until we hung up the phone and the paramedics came in. Now I'll give you a little bit more of what happened which is, this mind boggling to me. At that point, we hung up the phone. They let them do their thing. I didn't know if dad was responsive at all. Dr. Berry: So by the time you have the phone, he still hasn't come to yet. Dr. Sabine Elisee: I'm not seeing any of that. About maybe four. No, no, no, not even, three hours later. So, of course we're staying up. You can't go to sleep man. At this point I'm like, let's go run a marathon. So that was 10 o'clock, 11, 12, one o'clock. Now I get a call on WhatsApp and I take that phone and I hit answer. Dr. Berry: Probably before you press answer, that was probably one of the most nerve wracking call you've ever probably had to agree to connect to. Dr. Sabine Elisee: You don't have the time to think about that stuff. You don't have the time to think about that stuff. So more than anything else, it's that curiosity of I just need to know. Do I need to and I'll, point blank, do I need to call and make arrangements for a body to come in? Do I need to start figuring out, what arrangements we're going to make? Because now what I saw from my experience as hospice is that this is a patient I would have pronounced. If I was there, like you said, I was touching them. It's like I pronounced this patient, so I hit accept, and the camera now is, there were at the hospital. What I see is my dad sitting at the foot of the bed sitting up, waving at me, and he literally says to me, hi Sabine I'm not going to die. I'm going to live and I'm going to just declare the glory of the Lord. And this is like this. (I love it). What? Dumbfounded. And I have to tell you this, in true transparency, we learn these things. We know these things. We hear the records, we hear the statistics or read the literature of these things that they work. But when you see it works for you, that's it. There's nothing else you could say about that. The proof is in the pudding of that there. Dr. Berry: Lunch and Learn community, I just want to interject so you can understand where we're coming from. From alone, about half a million people die a year from cardiac arrest. About 475,000 here in the United States. About 350,000 of these cardiac arrest occur outside of the hospital. 90% of people who suffer from cardiac arrest die before they even get to the hospital. Right. So these are numbers. These are cold hard fact numbers that aren't change, that aren't decreasing, which should show you exactly why we're flabbergasted when we press accept and he's back waving at us because the odds are not for us, in the situation that he was in. Dr. Sabine Elisee: So I'm going to even add a little bit more to dad's story even more so. Because it was 3:00 AM in Paris, which means that they had already been in bed since midnight. So we really don't know how long that was even in that state truly. Mom just said that she put her arm over because she was startled in her sleep a little bit and she called my dad's name. He didn't answer and she put her head back down, but she was like, just felt something was wrong. So then she put her hands over to touch him and she said he felt ice cold, which made her jump up. So now when we start thinking about to the point where someone can feel now ice cold, how long that was going. And again, we're talking about CAB, the circulation. Mom never delivered a breath. All she did was pressed down on that heart. And that is something you can do too. Just press down on that heart. And that's enough to keep that circulation going. That's enough to keep the blood going. And what difference will it make? It will save a dad's life. It'll save a husband's life. It'll save sisters life, a brother's life, whatever family member, it will save someone's life. And when you think about all the benefits of that, what is there not to learn? What do you have to lose? Get that baseline. Sign up for that class. You know the holidays are coming up. Families coming in, go together and get that class done, just so that we can have it. And don't think, hey, maybe I don't need to take my eight year olds or five-year-olds, take them too, they know how to connect to the internet, play video games. Dr. Berry: As smart as they are. Give them the chance to learn. They'll probably learn just as quick as us. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Yeah. And they may be the ones to save our lives. Yeah. So the following few days that followed, so remember they just got there. They were actually getting into a, they went to Paris for our cousin's wedding. So my mom's nephew's wedding and that wedding was on the 4th of October. Actually the same exact day as my dad's birthday. So October 1st that happened. It was October 2nd for them in Paris now. And mom and Tanya, they're on the computer frantically trying flights, five flights to come home when we saw dad. So we saw dad at the side of the bed waving. He was discharged from the hospital. Maybe about an hour later, they didn't hold him because they said he's fine. We looked at the numbers, his glucose level was low. He took too much insulin. That's essentially what happened. That’s what they think is going on that had occurred at least. And then they released him. So now Tanya and mom were looking flights to come home and true manly dad fashion, like most of them, he said, I got all the way to Paris and y'all think I'm going to go home. Dr. Berry: He wasn't even having it. He’s like, I'm good now. Dr. Sabine Elisee: He wasn't having it. They stayed at the entire time. So they had all, I think it was like a seven day stretch trip. They stayed the entire time, not by what he want, but not like what my mom and Tanya and my sister wanted to do, but by his request. So later on that evening, I thought it was interesting because of course, now I'm getting back on WhatsApp, check on to see how they're doing. My mom and Tanya looked like they just saw ghost. So they're just pale. They're sitting at the dinner table, they look like they were just in some type attack that occurred to them. And there's something, some post-traumatic practice. They're black, but they're pale. They're just pale and dad's just sitting there eating, tasting stuff. Just having a good old time. Why do you guys keep looking at me? I'm fine. Like it's nothing. What made the difference? The baseline. Yeah we pray. We called Jesus. But now we put to action something and what we can put to action is doing that practical step of just no learning CPR from before and now using that skill set that you've learned to save someone's life. So as you can see now when you ask me that question of, hey, Dr. Elisee, do you think a CPR should be a rite of passage that everyone should learn? Absolutely yes. It's a resounding yes. And it's never too young and it's never too late for you to learn. That's a lifesaving skill that you want to learn. And it will be a game changer when you least expect it and you're going to be so happy that you did in making that investment into yourself for your family or even for someone else's family. Dr. Berry: Amazing. Amazing. I know someone's Lunch and Learn community going to kill me if I don't ask. Well, what happened in July? So you said the first time you like, oh yeah, this October incident was like definitely for sure, for sure. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Definitely for sure, for sure. So those of you who do not know, I alluded to it. So I am a physician. I'm also a wife, but I'm also in the real hood. Right? I'm in that parent trap. The real hood. (Yes). So in the real hood parenthood, you don't always get a chance to go exercise. I know I'll see a Dr. Pierre midnight saying, if you guys follow his IG and I just shake my head for me, it'll be like five in the morning if I can get it in. So July 4th was one of those days I didn't have to go to work. I was off. I was excited about that. Everyone was off. I was able to get out of that real hood for a moment, right? So I left the three the three boys here and I went to the gym and I literally just arrived, wasn't even 10 minutes into my cycle. (You didn't even get the full sweating yet). I didn’t get the full sweat in. And there's a man by the name of Dave who I didn't know at the time that literally collapsed on the elliptical. That was a problem 20 feet away from me. Uh, well, and then when I got to Dave, he was turning blue already. People were pulling his pockets. They ran to grab the AED machine and everyone's staring at him. And you know, I'll be honest with you guys, right? I'm that person who works out and who has her headphones in her ears and sings all loud at a tune. So I really was just in my zone. So now when I started, people like running and doing all this stuff, that's when I finally was like, hey, what's going on? And I turn and I see that they're huddling and there's a man on the ground, so that point when I jump off and I go there, and again, your skill set, it goes play. So immediately I'm like, he has no pulse. And he started having agonal breaths. So agonal breaths are those breaths that we learn as physicians that are like, they sound like real breaths, but they're fake breaths. And it's again, that indication that we're starting to shut down here people. Lights are going in. So he had the agonal breaths. He had no pulse. He's turning blue on me. So started CPR, just compressions, compressions, compressions, compressions. This is in the city of Davey. I called for the AED. Not going to tell you what gym I was at. The AED did not work. Dr. Berry: We wasn't going to name the gym because they ain't giving out any sponsorships, but we definitely not gonna name the gym. How that happened? Dr. Sabine Elisee: And I looked up at the employees and I'm like, what is this? It's not working. Are you kidding me? And I was just again going and going. What's the beauty of mankind? We see and we believe that the heart of man's full of evil. A lot of people believe that. But there is a part of the human heart that is still just right. I saw an entire gym come together and figure out what to do as I'm doing compressions. There's people who already got on his pockets, grabbed it, a license to find out who he is to find out who to call. There are other people who left their workout and now standing outside of the gym and waving down the paramedics as they come. There's another person who ran out of nowhere and was like, I know CPR to let me know when you want to switch and cycle out. So you see that community that just comes. So I believe there's still goodness in the world and we see it and we are able to be a part of that greatness that occurs. So I continue to do these compressions. EMS came. After they hooked him up to the monitors, he still wasn't having a true cardiac rhythms and they took them. And again guys, for me it wasn't personal because in my mind, in all honesty, you just do what you have to do for another human being. And as you know, you're doing what you have to do for another human being. You had a safe handoff that the EMS took him. And now I know that he's in their truck and they're headed over. So what else do you do? Well, I'm in the motherhood so I was like, I got my arm workout. Let me go ahead and do legs now. I forget working out. Dr. Berry: 100%, my job is done. The code ran. Dr. Sabine Elisee: I got to get back to my exercise because the real hood is about to come at me and the three kids, they're going to be wondering where I am. I left it alone and I wondered how he was doing. And then about a week later, I got a call from the fire department and they said, not only did he survive, but he survived with no deficits. And he's doing completely and totally well. It was such a mind boggling thing for the cardiologist that the cardiologist even noted the percentage of CPR for the way that your heart stops, the percentage of CPR that is done correctly to get you to the points that you had absolutely no deficits. And there's no indication in your EKG, in your echo, in any of the studies that we've done, there's absolutely no evidence that your heart even ever stopped. That means whoever did your CPR or not only did they do it correctly, but they literally saved your life so that you be here another day. And I didn't find this all out until maybe about eight months later, the city of Dave. They had a ceremony where they actually honored civilians who perform lifesaving skills. And that was the first time I came face to face with Dave and his wife. (Oh, that's beautiful). So it was a beautiful thing. And I'll never forget what Dave's wife said. She walked up to me and she just held me. And it was one of those like lifetime movie Oprah moments and she's crying and she said to me, you didn't save his life. You saved mine. Dr. Berry: I love that. Dr. Sabine Elisee: And it gave me chills and I want to let you know, Lunch and Learn community, who's all about empowering your health. You're here, you're listening to the cheese and the nuggets and the secrets that Dr. Pierre is offering to you. You have an opportunity to save someone's life that take advantage of it and not just yours. And I think that sometimes because that's what happens. We are willing to do more for someone else than for ourselves sometimes. So if you need to hear you didn't just save his life, you saved mine. That may be what you have to do. Maybe you need to hear that in order for you to say, you know what? I'm going to go ahead and sign up for this CPR class. I'm not gonna put it off. I'm not just going to say, hey, I'm going to get to it at the end of the week. I'm going to stop right now and go find a CPR class to sign up, sign up for. So I saved someone's life. It's doable. You could do it. And this is what we're talking about when Dr. Pierre is empowering you so that you can have better health, not just for you but for your friends and families as well. Dr. Berry: Beautiful. Absolutely beautiful. Absolutely amazing story. And it's so touching because you're able to not only affect someone's life that was a complete stranger with the lifesaving skills that you knew that you had, but you were also able to save someone who you know for the rest of her your whole life. (Yeah. A biggest fan). I love that aspect of it because again, we have so many families who don't get that opportunity. And I've talked about this Lunch and Learn community before. My father actually passed away when I was a first year medical student and go on a second year and from cardiac arrest. And by the time I got the phone call, it was, hey, your father pass away. And it was because no one around him, knew how to do any procedures. So at time, any EMS or anybody who came, it was already too late. So when I hear stories like that, I say, man, that's such amazing because we've seen it on a time and time basis, especially in a hospital setting. I know that if you have someone there who can start that lifesaving process right then and there, how many more lives can be affected. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Yep. That's absolutely true. And not to make it too personal, but I remember that time in medical school for you and I think about how different it would have been for you, for your kids, for them to see and know even for your father to not only know that you made it to medical school, but you graduated. You’re doing well, you're a top physician, you're leading in your community in the field and you're raising these beautiful children. So that would be one of those cases where Malia will say, you didn't just save grandpa's life, you saved my life. And that's what we want. So if we could change the story for some family that we don't even know right now, that's what this is about. We want to change that narrative. We want to change that story. If mom wasn’t there, I love my sister, but she doesn't know any of those skillsets. She didn't take any of that. And it's interesting because, so my dad, he has said, I need to learn CPR now. (Of course). I need to know how to do this. And I need to get everyone else around me to know how to do this because if you're telling me that's what happened and that's the difference it made. Of course I could do that and I want to learn that. Dr. Berry: So before we let you go, how can someone instead is right now and they say, well, you know what, you know Dr. Elisee got me right. She is so true. I need to learn this skill right now. Where should they go and who should they contact? What are some organizations that they should reach out to try to get this lifesaving skill under their belt as soon as possible? Dr. Sabine Elisee: So I'm going to make it really simple for you. I would tell you, send you to this website, but I don't want you to look at these national things. I want to look at you to look right in your community, right where you are. One of the first places that you could call is your local fire department. And they will be able to pinpoint for you what's a mile away, what's two miles away. We don't want to make this thing complicated for you, right? Dr. Berry: We don't want you drive in and having to get this going, think too far for me. Dr. Sabine Elisee: In a car, wait for the email, verify. No, your local fire department will be able to pinpoint for you where you can go. That's just in your community to do these classes. And a lot of times, a lot of different cities have community centers and in your community centers they offer these for these classes. Sometimes they'll do it once a month, sometimes they'll do it every two, three months of the quarter. Definitely when we come into heart awareness month, they sometimes do that every week. But right there its right there for you. So I want you to contact your local fire department and just ask a simple question. I want to learn, we'll say this, I want to learn CPR. Where do I go? And they'll be able to point you in the right direction. It is that simple. Dr. Berry: Amazing. And Lunch and Learn community again obviously I bragged about her on the introduction and clearly she lives up to the hype with such an amazing story of resting on your laurels and understanding that everyone has the ability to save a life. And it's just up to you to take advantage of it. So again, Dr. Elisee thank you for such an amazing story. A really amazing couple of stories. Because again, you're a hero to all. You'd be surprised, they probably still talk about you now every time they see a fire department, they see something on TV, they going to say, Oh wow remember when Dr. Elisee helped save my life. And then now you got a bargaining chip over your dad too. I was just always, always… Dr. Sabine Elisee: Never even thought about that. Dr. Berry: Come on now. Remember I save your life. What’s happening here? Please. I love it. You gotta hold that to the back pocket. And that's just in case almost like the big joker that's in case. Hey, come on now. Dr. Sabine Elisee: That's what it is. It's still. What’s interesting too is that with Dave, I still see him at the gym. Every time, and he is a big guy. So he's like six feet, at least 250. He’s big and tall. So it's probably the oddest thing of the people who see us. Because every time I go to the gym and I see Dave, Dave like will leave where he is and literally like pick me up off the ground, which is hugs and get save. It’s like all over again. Thanks man. You saved my life. And anyone who walks, she saved my life. She walks by, I actually saw him today at the gym this morning. And it's just a beautiful, beautiful thing and you don't feel like a hero. You just feel like I'm gonna do what I think is right and what I would think anyone else would do and what I would want someone to do for my loved one. If that's what you do. And more people do that, then what we believe. Dr. Berry: And now really before we let you go, I want people to be able to find you, to follow you, to track you down. So please take the time, opportunity to just say like, obviously, we talked about your medical group. Talk a little bit about the medical group. I'm being facetious. I already know you're on social media. Let them know how they follow you on social media. Remember Lunch and Learn community, we put all of these links and everything in the show notes anyway, but I want you to just let people know who you are so they can realize how amazing you are. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Absolutely. So I am Dr. Sabine Elisee. As you know, I'm a Board Certified Family Medicine Physician. I am the CEO and co-founder of Cornerstone Medical Group. And that group is all about bringing wholeness to your health. I really have come to realize that a lot of my background has really set the tone of how I want to practice medicine. So as a physician, as a pastor's kid, as a wife, as a mother, I realized to bring wholeness to your health, you need more just the physical. So what we do in our office and, and what's important for me is reconnecting your physical, spiritual, and cognitive health so that you could bring health and wellbeing to your body. That's how it really comes down to, where it's situated in Coral Springs, Florida and we are accepting new patients. If you want more information, one of the best ways to is to just hop on Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, LinkedIn even the Pinterest. And it's @drsabineelisee. And that's really the best way to connect and see all that's going on. We have Tuesday Transformer Groups where we go on and do a little bit about like what Dr. Pierre is doing. We hop on a Tuesday night about 8:30 and just share some medical tips. Share some things about what's going on in the community and how you can bring meets and brains. It’s not going to come casually. You need to bring health and wellbeing and wholeness to your life. It takes an active role and it's not by osmosis, you're gonna learn it or it's going to come to you. Right? So that's what we really need to do. And I know that Dr. Pierre and I, we both have spoken about this with our friends throughout medical school, that there's just such a great disparity for health, not just in the African community, but if you are a woman, if you are an immigrant, if you are coming from a place where you didn't have that. When we're looking at socioeconomic status, a lot of times we want to think that this is just a black and white thing. It really isn't right. When you really come down to it, a lot of times it really comes down to education level. It comes down to socioeconomic status. And you'll be surprised how many people who have a certain degree of education, but they still believe more in the person that has so many followers on their blog but have no medical background whatsoever that gets them in some trouble. So I mean, we're here for you. That's what it really comes down to. This is our passions is the reason why we went into medicine because we want to provide you the answers that we saw were not given to us and our family members as we grew up when they were at the hospital or when they were in their doctor's office or when they just said yes, and they ended up leaving that doctor's appointment more confused than when they first walked in. We want to put an end to that, not just for us, but for everyone who is ready to listen. I'm ready to take charge of their health. So drsabineelisee all one word, Instagram, Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter, LinkedIn. I can't wait to see you guys Lunch and Learn community. It’s been a pleasure and an honor to speak with you guys tonight. And I also thank you Dr. Pierre for having me on for this Lunch and Learn. Dr. Berry: Thank you. And again all of her links will be in the show notes. Please catch her Tuesday night discussions and educational lessons. Because again, I'm there Tuesday nights right along with her the rest of her crew and it's so enlightening. So empowering to see someone who you can tell just really cares. Because we're in the business now where caring isn't a primary trait for some of our colleagues anymore which is a problem, right? And so when you do see someone who like genuinely cares, because again, remember when we do the podcasting, when we do our Lunch and Learn sessions, when we do our Tuesday transforming week, we don't get paid for. This is a monetary thing. We're doing it because we know that there's someone out there that we're going to be able to touch and mold and help get them together because we do it right. And we do it because we love. That's why some of us came into medicine, right? And yeah, you've gotta say something, that's why some of us came into medicine and I'm just so enamored and I'm watching back. Because I know she's going to do so many great things that I'm just glad we were like, oh, that's my friend right there. Yeah. I just want to… Dr. Sabine Elisee: That’s what I say about you. You got me that t-shirt. I wear the bracelet and I'm like, I know this guy. Dr. Berry: Yes. So again, thank Dr. Elisee for joining us, blessing us. I love the spiritual aspect of it. Because I think that's another thing that's really missing in medicine as well. Where like, where we're trying to separate these things. We don't have a really divine power that's leading us. And of course obviously we're the ones doing the action, but someone's got instill that knowledge for us to get there. So again, thank you for really blessing us and really helping Lunch and Learn community, get right. Like I said, to make sure that whole family is CPR certified as soon as possible. Dr. Sabine Elisee: Yes. I love it. [/showhide]

 

Download the MP3 Audio file, listen to the episode however you like.

 

About the Author:

Admin

Admin

Welcome to the Official site of Dr. Berry Pierre, Board Certified Internist, Podcast Host, & National Speaker.

Quick Links

Follow Us

© Copyright 2020 2021 | Dr.Berry Pierre | All Rights Reserved
Facebook-f Twitter Linkedin-in Instagram