Nurse Buying Flowers Saves Shopper in Cardiac Arrest

Jaime Frame was supposed to be heading home. The 26-year-old nurse had just finished a 12-hour overnight shift in the emergency department at UPMC Passavant in McCandless, but he made one quick stop at the Greenfield Giant Eagle to grab flowers for his wife.

It was 8:23 a.m. on April 12 when Gary Gaal, a healthy 74-year-old volunteer and member of a lunch club called ROMEO (Retired Old Men Eating Out), suddenly collapsed in aisle 3. His heart had gone into ventricular fibrillation, an electrical storm that sent his heartbeat to 300 beats per minute with no pulse.

Frame, still wearing his scrubs, heard the medical emergency call on the intercom and rushed over. He immediately started CPR while a cashier ran for the store's automated external defibrillator.

Every second mattered. According to Elizabeth Piccone, a cardiologist and president of UPMC Passavant, ventricular fibrillation cuts off oxygen to the brain instantly. Without intervention within minutes, survival is nearly impossible.

Frame's manual CPR restored some blood flow to Gaal's brain while the AED delivered three shocks to restart his heart. The combination kept him alive until paramedics arrived.

The timing was extraordinary. Frame had stayed late talking to his manager after his shift. Despite having an infant at home and getting little sleep, he decided to make that flower stop anyway. He'd been in the store just a few minutes when Gaal collapsed.

For Sara Gaal, receiving the call from a paramedic that morning felt like a nightmare repeating itself. Eleven years earlier, her mother Cheryl had died from cardiac arrest at home. Flying from Seattle to Pittsburgh, she feared history was repeating.

But this time was different. By the time Sara arrived that evening, her father was recovering. After less than a week in the hospital, he was discharged on April 17 with an implanted cardioverter defibrillator that will stop abnormal rhythms in the future. The next day, he celebrated his 75th birthday.

The Ripple Effect

Gaal's survival represents more than one life saved. He volunteers three times weekly at the Squirrel Hill Food Pantry, bringing joy to his community and his ROMEO lunch buddies who get together every Wednesday.

UPMC held a reunion event where Frame received a certificate of heroism and a pack of Life Savers candy. Frame's wife Gretchen attended with their four-month-old daughter Phoebe, giving Gaal the chance to meet the family of the man who saved his life.

"So many things had to go right that day for my dad to be standing here," Sara told the crowd. "Thank you, Jaime, for being the beginning of that chain."

Gaal is back to living life fully, grateful for every moment. "Thanks to this whole community, I'm here, living life again and enjoying my daughter, my family and my friends."