Melinda Murray-Nyack is a mom on a mission to save lives.
Today, it's with students at the Urban Assembly School for Emergency Management. Murray-Nyack teaches people how to perform CPR and how to use an automated external defibrillator. Her work has saved lives.
She knows of at least four cases where someone she trained was able to step in to help during a cardiac emergency.
What You Need To Know
- Melinda Murray-Nyack lost her 17-year-old son to a cardiac arrest in 2009
- She started an organization in his name to ensure no parent would have to lose a child to heart issues the way she did
- The Dominic A. Murray 21 Memorial Heart Foundation has trained almost 30,000 to administer automated external defibrillators and perform CPR
"CPR, AED trainings, bystander CPR triples the chances of survival for someone who can collapse," Murray-Nyack said.
She started because of the life she couldn't save: her 17-year-old son.
"Had Dominic received immediate CPR and access to AED, maybe he would still be here today," she said.
Her son, Dominic, was practicing on his college basketball court when he fell to the ground, with sudden cardiac arrest.
After his death, doctors discovered that the teenager had a congenital heart defect.
"My son had collapsed, my only child, and everything seemed like a blur from then," Murray-Nyack said.
The Queens woman turned her pain to power. She started the Dominic A. Murray 21 Memorial Heart Foundation in 2010.
It's been CPR and AED classes and activism ever since. Murray-Nyack's team often volunteers with the American Heart Association.
"Dominic, her son, his legacy has helped us save countless lives across our city," Robin Vitale, the vice president of community impact at the American Heart Association, said.
A state law named for Murray-Nyack's son was enacted in 2021. It requires information about sudden cardiac arrest be shared with students, their parents and their coaches.
Kids with heart problems need to now be cleared by a cardiologist before playing school sports. Their illness must be documented on their school medical records.
"It's preventable and that we all need to do something to prevent what's happening to our young people,” Murray-Nyack said.
Her efforts have paid off. The organization has helped more than 100 young people discover they had heart issues. They've placed dozens of AEDs in schools and different organizations throughout the New York area. And they've trained almost 30,000 people to save lives.
"Every goal that we meet is an accomplishment for Dom and that's what it's all about. I'm just doing work that he would be doing," she said.
For keeping people and her son's spirit alive, Melinda Murray-Nyack is our New Yorker of the Week.