Television teaches daughter life-saving lesson
Teen revives mom usingCPR, which she learnedby watching reality show

Download a PDF of this storyBy Jillian Daley • Statesman Journal
July 6, 2009



Christina Lopez's daughter saved her life using skills the girl picked up watching television. Now, Lopez will live to see her daughter become a mother.


A few weeks ago, Lopez collapsed in the bedroom of the northeast Salem apartment that she shares with her daughter, Nicole Madril, 15.

Madril and her boyfriend were fixing dinner when she decided to go check on her mother, who has several health problems. Madril walked into the bedroom and found her mother lying on the floor.

"Her heart wasn't beating, and she was already turning blue," Madril said.

She called 911 and handed the phone to her boyfriend, Cruz Bermejo.

Then, Madril started performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on her mother.

Madril said the 911 dispatcher asked Bermejo if Madril needed instructions on how to do CPR.

His answer was swift: "'She already knows how.'"

She had picked it up by watching a reality show set in an emergency room.

To stay calm, she first took a couple of deep breaths.

"I told myself I need to get this under control and that I know what I'm doing," Madril said.

Then, she just did what she had seen emergency medics do on TV.

Her mother since has been released from Salem Hospital and intends to schedule a stress test to find out what may have caused her to collapse. Lopez doesn't think it was a heart attack, but that's what she's been told.

She suffers from sleep apnea, diabetes, emphysema and blood clots and is not sure which health issue could have caused the breathing problem.

Whatever the cause, emergency officials said Lopez was lucky to have Madril's aid.

"They said if she wouldn't have done that that I would have died," Lopez said.

And, if Lopez had died, she would not have gotten the chance to see Madril give birth. Madril is pregnant, due Feb. 28.

Madril plans to get her high school diploma from McNary, where she will be a sophomore. She is attending McNary though she lives in Salem because she wants to be close to Bermejo. He also will be a sophomore at McNary in the fall.

Once Madril gives birth, her mother will help watch the baby while she is in class.

Madril plans to go to college in West Virginia, where she has relatives. She likes to work with seniors and is considering a career in elder care.

But, for now, Madril is keeping an eye on her mom until she can get proper medical treatment.

"I'm staying home more and not going anywhere," Madril said, "and if I do go anywhere, then I ask her to come with me, or I have a next door neighbor come over and sit with her."

Lopez is proud of her daughter's interest in school — and her quick thinking.

"She's got a good head on her shoulders," Lopez said.