Berwick woman appears on BBC Breakfast after saving her husband's life with CPR
A Northumberland woman has appeared on the BBC after saving her husband’s life through administering CPR and going on to train more than 150 others in the life-saving skill.
After vowing to share her knowledge to help prevent the tragedy of sudden cardiac death, Debra Jerdan, from Berwick, appeared on BBC Breakfast on Wednesday, February 12 alongside British Heart Foundation (BHF) CEO Dr Charmaine Griffiths as part of Heart Month.
Debra is a trained first aid instructor who first learned CPR as a young police cadet – a skill which saved her husband Graeme, 60, after he collapsed mid-conversation at their home on August 30 2023.
Since then, she has acquired a defibrillator training device, three resuscitation mannikins and travelled throughout the Berwick and Borders region training community groups and individuals in CPR using the BHF training programme.
Debra said: “I know how very close we came to losing Graeme. There’s only one reason he’s alive and that’s because of CPR. Knowing that CPR saved my husband’s life, I had to get out there and help others learn this very simple skill. It only takes 15 minutes to learn.
“Cardiac arrest can happen to anyone at any time. But if you can give a person CPR you give them their best chance of surviving. It works and it’s too important to ignore.
“I will continue to go out and train people for long as I can because it’s one of the most important skills anyone can ever have.”
Graeme added: “I will never be able to thank Debra enough for what she did. She’s always been remarkable.
“It was her actions first, and then the ambulance paramedics and then the air ambulance and the hospital, that brought me back. But without Debra doing CPR first, I think we know I wouldn’t be here today.”
The BBC Breakfast hosts discussed data from the BHF which suggests that 50% of people would be scared to carry out CPR on a loved one for fear of hurting them.
Debra added: “I tell them not to worry about cracking ribs. People can live with a cracked rib – but without CPR they won’t live at all."
To learn CPR in just 15 minutes, people should visit https://www.bhf.org.uk/revivr