The run was going particularly well, and Pia checked the running app on her iPhone, which was strapped to her upper right arm. The GPS was on, and the app marked her progress on the route, keeping logs of times and distances. As she passed a distinctive weathered pine tree, she saw that she was making great time. The activity calmed her. It was as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

Then, ahead of her in the road, she saw a male figure lying facedown, legs straight and arms stuck out to the side, as if he had been crucified and tipped off the cross and onto the ground. He didn’t seem to be moving, and Pia’s pulse, which had been holding steady at a moderate rate, suddenly picked up speed. Her intuition told her the man was in trouble, and her first thought was whether she was up to lending a hand. She’d been through medical school, but as far as emergency medicine was concerned, her training only made her aware of what she didn’t know. How to actually be a doctor was learned in residency training, which Pia had yet to do. She knew all too well that there was a reason a trainee could not get a license to practice medicine until after some level of graduate medical education had been achieved.

Controlling her anxieties as best she could, Pia ran up and knelt beside the stricken individual, who was dressed in the same running gear she was. He was Asian. Quickly determining the man was seemingly not breathing and had no apparent pulse at the wrist, Pia maneuvered him over onto his back. She shook him forcibly, trying to rouse him. Leaning over him, she put her ear close to his mouth. Now she was certain. The man was not breathing! His mouth was partially open, and along his lips she saw a bit of foam, making her wonder if he’d had a seizure.

Wasting no time, as she knew time was critical, she again felt for a pulse and found none. With the flat of her hand she pounded the man’s chest several times. She had remembered that maneuver from a lecture. What she couldn’t remember was why it was done, but she did it anyway. She then reached for her phone to dial 911 in hopes of summoning help. Thanks to the GPS device in her phone, she could give very precise details of where she was located, which she did rapidly after telling the operator she’d come upon an unresponsive man who wasn’t breathing and had no pulse. Her final comment was that she had no idea how long the man had been lying next to the road.

After being reassured that an EMT vehicle was being dispatched, Pia started administering CPR. Her first priority was thirty chest compressions, using the heels of her intertwined hands. At least she could remember the outlines of the procedure. While she was doing it, she made certain that she was getting at least two inches of chest compression. It was not difficult. The man was lanky, perhaps in his forties, and seemed in good shape and hence was supple. The rationale she knew was to propel blood through the one-way valves of his heart and out into his system to keep the man’s brain alive until his heart could be restarted with a defibrillator.