Woman saves her father's life with AED at Naperville theater

NAPERVILLE, Illinois -- A suburban man is recovering after his daughter saved his life. She's a trained nurse, but the job would have been much tougher if not for a theater owner who planned ahead.

From now on, these two women will forever share an incredible Father's Day memory. Kandiss Hernandez helped Mary McCue save her dad's life last Friday at the Center Stage Theater in Naperville, which Hernandez runs.

McCue and her family had come there to see to see McCue's daughter, 10-year-old Casey, perform in the Kidz Kabaret production of Beauty and the Beast when the unexpected happened.

"We're passing tickets out. My father looked at me, his eyes rolled back," she said.

Robert McCue was unconscious and in full cardiac arrest. Someone called 911 while McCue - who's been a registered nurse for years - started CPR on her 80-year-old father, who remained unresponsive.

But just as efforts to save his life looked hopeless, McCue used the automatic external defibrillator to bring her father back to life.

Although she didn't have to, Hernandez paid $1,400 for the AED just two months after taking a grandparenting class at a nearby hospital in preparation for the birth of her grandson, Beau.

"I called my son that night and said baby Beau saved a grandpa today. Had I not taken that class I wouldn't have had that AED in this facility," Hernandez said.

Robert McCue is now making a full recovery.

"We go every single day to see how he's doing," his granddaughter said.

While a family hopes their story about the device can help save other lives.

"For things to line up the way that they did is truly is a miracle," McCue said.

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