Carrying on Cory’s story

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MARY REICHARD, HOST: Today is Wednesday, October 22nd.

Thank you for turning to WORLD Radio to help start your day.

Good morning. I’m Mary Reichard.

LINDSAY MAST, HOST: And I’m Lindsay Mast.

Coming next on The World and Everything in It: one woman’s unexpected mission.

Every year, hundreds of thousands of people suffer a cardiac event. They prove fatal for ninety percent of people who have one outside of a hospital.

REICHARD: Interventions like CPR and automated external defibrillators, or AED’s, can improve the rate of survival. Lindsay, you spoke with a mother who has worked to increase those chances…for very personal reasons.

LINDSAY MAST: On January 17th, 2013, Lisa Wilson got a call from an unknown number that would change her life.

AUDIO: Hey Miss Lisa it's Caroline…

Wilson was at work as a nurse and let it go to voicemail.

AUDIO: We were just sitting in class with Cory, and all of a sudden he passed out.

The young woman calling attended the same university as both of Wilson’s children.

AUDIO: He started snoring, and then he just like, passed out, and he's not responsive right now..

Her son, Cory. A 21-year-old junior. Wilson describes him as full of life. Healthy, kind, gregarious. But that day, something was terribly wrong.

Wilson grabbed her keys, got in the car, and prayed the entire 45-minute drive to the hospital.

WILSON: ...that God would be in that room, that he would take care of Cory and he would live.

When she arrived the doctor said CPR was ongoing. Wilson asked to join. After all, she was a CPR instructor, a nurse–and his mom. Surely he would come back for her.

WILSON: And I'm pushing his chest, and I'm thinking he's going to wake up. And this story is going to be about how God has intervened and allowed Corey to live. And it's going to show people too, how important it is to know CPR, and it's just going to be such a blessing.

But an hour after he collapsed, the doctor called a code–Cory wasn’t coming back.

WILSON: And I just remember just, just saying, No, like I'm not tired, he's gonna live. And she just kept she said, he's not. He's not.

They went through Cory’s backpack to see if there was anything in it that might indicate why he collapsed. Wilson pulled out pencils and a calculator. Then she felt a small book. She thought it was the thesaurus the family had given Cory at Christmas—he loved words.

WILSON: But when I took it out, it wasn't a thesaurus. It was Cory’s Bible.

She says that was the first small step in carrying on.

WILSON: And when I took that Bible out, I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that God was in that room. I would never be able to live if I did not know God was in that room. I'm just that faithless that I had to have a sign that he was in that room to go forward.

But how? Cory had a zest for life that she still misses.

WILSON: He would come down the stairs at our house, and if it was raining, he would be like, Ma, look at this rain. Like it's, it's, isn't it great? And he loved being in the rain. He loved walking in the rain. And you know, if it was cold, ‘Ma, it's, it's so cold, but it feels so good.’” I love the fire…

Moving on without him felt impossible.

WILSON: This morning we were a family of four, and then we're a family of three, and we're minus one, and that's going to be the rest of our lives we're going to be minus one. All the silliness and the goofiness and the “ma” and all of the things, they were just gone.

She started pouring herself into something that she already cared about: CPR instruction. She also started advocating for putting AEDs in public places. Those are the defibrillators you see in schools, sports venues, and parks.

AUDIO: Stay calm. Follow these instructions…

They walk users through the process of using them, so anyone can. She carries one in her car.

AUDIO: Remove the white square package from lid of AED…

It’s not clear if an AED would’ve saved Cory, but there wasn’t one available when he collapsed. Others who knew him joined Wilson in raising awareness and money for AEDs.

Still, healing progressed slowly. Moving forward was one thing, but finding joy again proved harder.

WILSON: It's been hard on our marriage, it's been hard on our family. It's been hard on our friends.

She had to give herself permission to live again. Help there came from an unexpected source: watching her daughter get on an airplane to study abroad in Italy after Cory’s death.

WILSON: She has taken not just her own pain as a child, but her parents’ pain, her grandparents’ pain, and she has been able to strengthen her resolve to go forward and live this life. And if she can do that, I owe it to her to let her know she will always be enough for us to strive for.

There’s been a lot of living since then. Wilson now has grandchildren and is nearing retirement. But she still finds Cory inspiring her.

WILSON: He didn't get up in the morning and go, ‘I'm going to make a difference today.’ He just lived his life in a way that was full of gratefulness. And Corey was content.

Cory’s name is on a law requiring Georgia high schoolers to learn CPR and how to use an AED. Wilson doesn’t think cardiac awareness is why God put her son on earth, but she takes comfort knowing his story and her work may help others.

WILSON: For me as Cory’s mom, it's a blessing because I know that somewhere down the line there's a possibility that there'll be a mom and dad and a sister that may not have to face what we faced, because people knew what to do in an emergency.

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