When Dan Shire’s heart stopped beating in 2016, it led to a race against time to save his life.
Shire’s wife heard him struggling to breathe in the middle of the night. Then she ran to the phone to call 911, started CPR, and waited minute-by-painful-minute for first responders to show up.
Once paramedics arrived at the couple’s Pickering, Ont., home, they used a defibrillator on Shire four times, then tried a potent medication in an attempt to restart his heart.
That drug, epinephrine — also called adrenalin — is given intravenously every three to five minutes, up to an average of six milligrams. It
