Something didn’t sound right to Brie Salloum as she was getting ready for school one morning in early April. Weird noises echoed in the upstairs hallway. She compares the sounds to elongated snores, or deep, muffled gurgles.
Brie walked into her parents' bedroom and found her father, Ray, lying in bed and gasping for breath. “His teeth were gritted, and he grimaced,” her mother, Lisa Salloum, said. “I could see we were losing him.” What happened next, medical professionals have told the family, was the beginning of “a miracle.”
Brie Salloum, center, learned CPR as part of a certified nursing assistant class at Valley High School. She used those skills to save her father's life when he suffered cardiac arrest in the early morning of April 2. Her parents, Ray and Lisa Salloum, are pictured with her. (Photo: West Des Moines Community Schools/Special to the Register)
Brie Salloum is a senior at Valley High School who is set to graduate Sunday at Drake University’s Knapp Center with 595 of her peers. She is a quiet, reserved 18-year-old who enjoys video games, hanging out with friends, and working at the movie theater at Jordan Creek Town Center.
Salloum puts up with school because “it’s obligatory,” she quips, but admits she enjoys it. She's taken several advanced placement courses at Valley — AP chemistry, AP physics, AP psychology — you name it.
Learn, Enjoy and Save Life. HealthForce Training Center offer services such as Basic Life Support (BLS), Advance Cardiovascular Life Support (ACLS), Pediatric Advance Life Support (PALS), CPR AED, Pediatric First Aid CPR AED and First Aid CPR AED. Read more of our blogs.
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