South Bay teen saves mom's life with CPR

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. (KGO) -- A South Bay woman is alive thanks to the quick-thinking of her 17-year-old daughter. El Camino Hospital staff members are hailing the girl as a hero for performing CPR -- something her parents didn't even realize she knew how to do.

Lori Dolan, 53, had been perfectly healthy her entire life, until Sunday afternoon. She was home in Sunnyvale, watching her beloved San Francisco 49rs. Her husband Larry went to get the burgers off the grill. When he came back she was passed out on the couch.

"I said, 'Honey, the hamburgers are here' and she had this look, and almost instantly I realized something was wrong. I dropped the hamburgers and ran over. She was lifeless," said Larry.

Larry panicked, calling to his 17-year-old daughter, Lindsay, who came running to her mother's side.

"Her face, her face was purple. Her eyes were rolled back and she was cold, ice cold," said Lindsay.

Lindsay had one CPR lesson two years ago in P.E. class and knew what she had to do. She started and did CPR by herself, until help arrived.

"Look, she went from the worst low, a 17-year-old girl watching her mother die in her arms, to actually saving her life and becoming our hero," said Larry.

Lori's brain had no oxygen for nearly a half-hour. If she lived, the doctors at Mountain View's El Camino Hospital warned she'd probably have brain damage.

Chief medical officer Eric Pifer, M.D., says Lindsay's CPR in the critical first three minutes made all the difference.

"She saved not just her life, she saved her functionality too," said Pifer.

"She was gone, and now she's here, and she's smiling at me, and she tells me she loves me. That's all I wanted, I wanted to hear her voice," said Lindsay.

"She saved my life. I love her," said Lori.

Lindsay has been sleeping on a hospital room chair since her mom was admitted. The whole family should be able to go home soon.

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mountain view, sunnyvale, south bay news, heather ishimaru

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