SARASOTA, Fla. — A Sarasota father suffered cardiac arrest while dancing with his daughter at her wedding.
Emily Alvarez had just married the love of her life, Jayson, during a ceremony at Phillippi Estate Park in March of 2024.
Alvarez said she practiced her father-daughter dance for months. On her wedding day, she started by dancing with her dad to Bob Carlisle's Butterfly Kisses.
The two then broke out into a choreographed dance to Taylor Swift's "You Need to Calm Down."
She said about a minute into the dance, her dad collapsed and hit his head on a railing.
"It took me several seconds to register because I didn’t know if he fell and tripped or if he was just dizzy and needed to get back up," said Emily Alvarez.
Her 61-year-old father, Brad Carver, had suffered cardiac arrest. She recalled wedding guests screaming to call 911.
"Everyone was calling 911 and yelling that out loud and shocked and kind of screaming out loud so everyone was panicking, but also at the same time remaining calm enough to assist saving his life," said Alvarez.
A wedding guest, Kord Webb, is a firefighter/EMT with the City of Venice. He performed CPR on her father.
Stacy Boyce is a wedding photographer with Evoke Photo and Film. She is also a former firefighter/EMT. She grabbed the venue's defibrillator and used it.
"That could have been the easily the worst day of all of our lives not just my family's life, but everyone at the wedding that witnessed that because that’s a really traumatic and tragic thing to see," said Alvarez.
"I'm so thankful to both of them," she added.
Brad was rushed to Sarasota Memorial Hospital. He said he suffered no symptoms except dizziness.
"I don’t dance so it was pretty amazing I was out there doing that and about a minute into the 3 minute song, I collapsed. I remember thinking, wow, I’m feeling dizzy," recalled Brad.
Dr. Jeffrey Sell, Chief of Cardiovascular Surgery at Sarasota Memorial Hospital, performed triple bypass surgery.
Dr. Sell said the 61-year-old had numerous blocked arteries.
"He had a cardiac arrest. He didn't have a heart attack, really. It was interesting, but he just had enough blockages that made his heart irritable and then went into a very bad sudden death type of rhythm and fortunately, people there were able to shock him out of it," said Dr. Sell.
"Half of the people who had the kind of blockages he had, the first event that they have isn't chest pain, it's sudden death so sudden death is a real and scary thing," he added.
Alvarez and her father encourage everyone to pay attention to their health. They realize the importance of learning CPR and how to use an AED.
"If you can do CPR, learn CPR and then an AED. It saved my life too and without those two things, I would not be here," said Brad.
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