CLINTON — When Josh Hill of Clinton saw his father, David, incapacitated and hanging off his parents’ bed the morning of Aug. 26, he sprang to action.

Suspecting his father had suffered a heart attack, the 15-year-old performed CPR on him for six critical minutes until an emergency response crew arrived.  

“Adrenaline was running through my body. I quickly jumped into CPR mode and just did what I was trained to do,” Josh said. “I was terrified. I didn’t know if he was going to live or die.”

Two weeks later, David, 58, and Josh work on homework in a hospital room at Mercy. 

David is still being monitored because of the pneumonia he developed after the heart attack, but he can move around and talk to, joke with and smile at Josh, his youngest son and possible life saver.

While it cannot be said for certain what would have become of David if Josh hadn’t performed CPR when he did and for as long as he did, medical professionals who worked on him agree the Clinton High School sophomore’s actions were crucial and remarkable.  

“I think you would be here, but you wouldn’t be here with all the faculties you have. I’m almost certain of that,” Wes Reese, a registered nurse who was in the Mercy ER that morning, told David.

Without CPR the threat of brain damage due to loss of oxygen in the brain would have been a very likely scenario, according to doctors and nurses who were there that day.

“I’ve told Josh several times ‘the only reason your dad is back there being fixed is because of you. You’re the one.’ I’ve been around for 20 plus years and I can’t think of anything he did wrong. I’m just totally in awe.”

Josh’s capacity to perform CPR can be traced back three months ago when he took a class through the YWCA as part of a lifeguarding job.

It wasn’t only Josh’s CPR certification that granted him the ability to take the actions he did.  He’s also being lauded for his presence of mind.

Janna Linville with the Clinton YWCA trained Josh in CPR this summer. Linville said she trains around 110 people a year using the American Red Cross guide and has only encountered one other instance when the training was used to save a person’s life.

“I think he is the face of courage in an emergency,” Linville said. “The state of mind he had to be in is amazing.”

Josh remembered being told during the CPR class that although the chance he would need to employ his newly learned skills was slim, it was still important to know.

“Never in a million years did I think I would use it, especially on my dad,” Josh said. “I couldn’t think of him as my dad. In my mind, I was picturing the dummy.”

The morning of David’s heart attack, as Josh performed CPR on his father, his mother and David’s wife, Gini, was in shock, thinking her husband was going to die.

She grabbed the phone Josh had used to call 911 and confirm using CPR, and began calling family members to tell them what happened.

“I looked at Josh and I knew he was in control of the situation. Words can’t describe it,” Gini Hill said. “I knew I could leave the room and he was in control.”

After six minutes, the EMTs arrived and took over for Josh.  Defibrillation paddles were used on David multiple times as he was strapped to a stretcher and driven to the hospital.

After arriving at the Mercy Medical Center emergency room, Dr. Qaiser Rasheed determined David had 100 percent blockage in one artery and 80 percent in another and would need two stints.  

“Whatever chance he had for survival, he probably gave him the best chance of survival,” Rasheed said of Josh. “I complimented him because that was an incredible thing for a young person to do.”  

Mary Maddasion, Rasheed’s nurse, was also there the morning of the heart attack.  

“If we didn’t have Josh doing his job, we wouldn’t be able to do our job.  I think he deserves to be a positive role model,” Maddasion said. “I’ve been doing this with Dr. Rasheed for 14 years and I’ve never seen anything like that.”

After spending a few days at Mercy, David was airlifted to the Iowa City where he spent another few days. He now has most of his faculties back and suffered no brain damage as a result of the heart attack.   

It wasn’t until Tuesday or Wednesday that Josh realized what he had done.

“I thought, ‘wow, I just saved my dad’s life,’” he said.

David doesn’t remember any part of the incident. The days of his life that he missed have been put together in stories he’s heard from doctors, nurses, Gini and Josh. He said he had to revisit his life from childhood forward to remember how to function in his life again.

For Josh, the memories of those fearful days are vivid.  He still has some pain in his arms and stomach from performing the strenuous maneuver. He also suffers from flashbacks of that morning and seeing his father lying lifeless in his parent’s room.

“It was definitely the scariest moment of my life,” Josh said.

In spite of the fear, the incident has strengthened the relationship between father and son and shown the entire family how many people jumped to offer love and support.

“This brought us extremely more close,” Josh said, glancing at his father with a smile.

Josh also plans to advocate for everyone to be certified in CPR, which he believes the school should offer certification in.

As for David, he’s looking forward to continuing to help with his son’s swimming activities, school work and possible future career as an EMT.  

“We have a pretty tight bond,” David said. “Now, I have a chance to go on and be a healthier person and watch him succeed.”