Sudden certification: Nurse helps save man’s life after heart attack

Jenn Kinney was set to get re-certified in CPR in a few days.

Instead, the McKinney nurse got some unexpected real-life training – and likely saved 63-year-old Ted Hendrickson’s life.

Hendrickson had a heart attack last Wednesday inside the party room at Scotty P’s restaurant in Allen. There for a Collin County Umpires Association board meeting, he suddenly collapsed and hit a table on the way down.

Fellow umpires called 911 and others ran over to Acute Kids Urgent Care next door, pleading that Hendrickson was having a seizure. The doctor and technician – two of four people on staff that day – were busy, so Kinney, a part-time nurse, hustled to Hendrickson.

“He was clearly not having a seizure, but was slumped over in a chair, very sweaty,” Kinney said. “Within 30 seconds, his appearance changed and he had no pulse, so I started compressions.”

Certification 101 at its realest. She continued compressions to little avail. Hendrickson wasn’t responding.

“Being in a restaurant, I didn’t have available all I’d like to have,” she said. “There was no oxygen or crash cart, so it was definitely a different situation. But I knew the fire department was on the way.”

Kinney relayed Hendrickson’s status via speaker phone to the 911 dispatcher, and pumped blood through his body until paramedics took over. CareFlite couldn’t get there fast enough, so an ambulance took Hendrickson to nearby Medical Center of McKinney.

Doctors determined he had full blockage in his coronary artery, and relied on multiple shocks to keep him alive. He survived.

“We had moved the board meeting up 30 minutes, and it happened five minutes after I got there,” said Hendrickson, who was released from the hospital Saturday night. “If it had happened five minutes differently one way or the other, I might not have made it. Jenn saved my life.”

His lifesaver wasn’t aware until Saturday, three days after she took action. Once Hendrickson left for the hospital, she returned to Acute Kids, needed for a “busy day at the clinic,” she said.

“I had to pull myself together and move on,” she recalled. “I thought about him all night and wondered if I’d ever know what happened to him.”

Her CPR certification class was scheduled for the day she found out. Of course that could wait, so Kinney instead visited Hendrickson and his wife, Jeri, at MCM. He was making a full recovery – and knew who was largely responsible.

“If she hadn’t been there, he wouldn’t have made it,” Jeri assures. “It was all shocking, really. I’m just very thankful Jenn was there.”

Come to find out, Kinney’s son and daughter go to McKinney High School, where Hendrickson’s granddaughter attends. “Just a bunch of ironic things that happened,” he said.

Kinney, who admits quickly pumping blood and oxygen through the body is vital, still deflects credit to quick first responders and the hospital staff. She just did what she’s trained to do. When she’s not at Acute Kids, she’s working in adult oncology at Presbyterian Hospital in Plano.

Hendrickson, back at his Allen home, still has pain but has made a full recovery. Doctors haven’t yet determined cause for the blockage in his heart. “I’m a very lucky individual to be walking today,” he says.

Though she joked she should “get a pass” on the CPR re-cert class, Kinney has already re-scheduled. She knows now more than ever just how important it is.

“Even though you train to do it, when it actually happens, it’s pretty scary,” she said. “You never know, so I welcome the training. And then you just do what you have to do.”

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