(Source: DMC Hospitals)

A Physician Assistant at Detroit Medical Center’s Cardiovascular Institute, along with his wife, also a Physician Assistant, helped save a life last Sunday, Sept. 16, after a man collapsed during a charity fundraiser walk at Kensington Metropark.

The patient, in his late 70s, had only minutes to live after suffering a cardiac arrest. Slobodan Djordjevic, his wife, Jamie, and about 13 of their family members were finishing up the walk when suddenly everything changed.

Jamie Djordjevic, had noticed the man looking ashen and as he collapsed against a tree, she got to him and began CPR, immediately calling for Slobodan to help.

The two had to perform “aggressive” CPR for about 20 minutes, until an ambulance came, Slobodan said. “It was very scary; the time was moving slowly; it feel like an eternity,” he said. “We had to do our best, because this was the only chance he had.

“The ambulance came and put the paddles on him and shocked him out of the lethal rhythm, and got a pulse,” Slobodan said. The man was taken to Providence Park, the closest hospital. Slobodan’s wife Jamie, works at Providence Southgate.

The chance of surviving a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting is less than 10 percent. “We saved him. He would have died,” said Slobodan, 41 and a PA at CVI for four years. “It just shows you the value of CPR.”

Slobadan said he and his wife have kept in touch with the family and have been asked to visit the patient in the next few days.