“I couldn’t be a coward”

By Joel Wittnebel/The Oshawa Express

There are many things you can expect people to say when you wake up in the morning on your birthday.

However, when Ryan Doyle woke up on March 18, the dawn of his 28^th birthday, he got an unpleasant surprise.

Doyle was awoken by what he describes as a “gurgling sound” coming from his parents bedroom.

“My dad came in and he said there’s something wrong with Mom.”

The events that followed not only led to Doyle saving the life of his dying mother, but earning the city’s award for heroism.

“I went in there and I saw her laying there, she was not responsive, no vital signs, nothing, no breathing,” Doyle says.

Doyle had been trained in CPR as part of his studies during two years at Durham College in their social services worker program. That training, undertaken nearly three years before, immediately kicked in and he ordered his dad to call 911 before kneeling beside his mother.

After one rotation of compressions, Doyle got his mother, Theresa, breathing again, but it was shallow.

He continued until paramedics arrived and swept the 62-year-old off to the hospital.

Over three months later, Theresa is healthy and made a full recovery from the heart attack that left her clinging to life that day.

Ryan says he’s thrilled by the city’s recognition of his actions, but more importantly, he’s happy his mother made it though the incident.

“It’s nice to be considered a hero, but more importantly, I’m just really thrilled to know that she’s okay,” he says.

Ryan has suffered throughout his life with autism, depression and learning disabilities.

Facing stigmatization and judgment throughout his school years, Ryan says there were times when his mother was the only person he could turn to.

“It was hard, especially growing up. It’s hard to feel accepted when you suffer from mental illness and sometimes it’s a challenge, and you feel like no one really understands what you’re going through, and some people don’t care to understand,” Ryan says.

“If I was ever going through something, she’d be there to listen to anything,” Ryan says.

And in his mind, that makes him not the only hero in this situation.

“I learned how to be a hero because that’s what she is,” he says. “She’s been there when I needed her and that’s heroic in and of itself.”

Growing up with mental illness, Ryan says he’s lived with fear, but it’s learning to push that fear aside that made him take the steps he did that day.

“I knew in the face of fear I couldn’t be a coward, I had to have the courage in the face of danger to save her life, and I knew that’s what I needed to do,” he says.

Along with saving his mother, Ryan was able to perform CPR without repercussions to his mother’s recovery, such as broken ribs, which can be a common outcome of chest compressions.

Once at the hospital, Ryan said he had a hard time getting out of the “hero mindset”, trying to keep things together for everyone.

“In the hospital I felt like I was still trying to play the role of the hero. I basically said when she had visitors, I said just don’t say goodbye, no matter what you do, don’t say goodbye. Just say we’ll be back before you know it,” he says, fearing any goodbyes could trigger further stress or a heart attack for his already weakened mother.

Currently, Ryan is in his third year of online classes with Athabasca University, earning a bachelor degree in psychology. He hopes to further that into a masters, and a PHD before becoming a self-employed psychologist.

The well-spoken Oshawa resident is humble in his acceptance of his heroic efforts, and hopes people will take something else from his actions.

“I think this is a kind of lesson to people in the world, that it’s important for people within this world to be trained in CPR, just in case they need to use that CPR to save a life,” he says.

He hopes CPR training becomes a mandatory part of high school curriculums, similar to community service hours.

Along with his academic ambitions, Ryan is also working to publish a self-help book entitled Tears of Loneliness: The Angel Within for victims of bullying, but he says regardless of what successes he has in life, one thing will always stand out.

“No matter what I accomplish in life, I could be a doctor, I could win the Nobel Prize, I could be the best writer in history… but (this) is the biggest accomplishment by far, saving a life.”