One summer day in 2007, Utah State Senator Mark Madsen (R-Saratoga Springs) was grilling chicken and corn on the cob in his yard with his family, when he was hit by what felt like the flu. As a chronic pain patient, Madsen, who sustains back and spine injuries from two car accidents and playing football in his youth, was wearing a Fentanyl patch to alleviate his discomfort. Not realizing the Fentanyl patch had burst, Madsen went to go lie down.
“Our oldest daughter came to me and said, ‘Mom, Dad told me to wake him up and I can’t wake him up,'” recounts Madsen’s wife Erin. “I went downstairs to wake him up, and he was cold and clammy. He had turned grey. He was not breathing.” They called 911 and their neighbor who was a paramedic, while Erin tried to resuscitate Madsen with rescue breaths. “I could feel that his heart was beating, but he was not breathing. I was terrified. I had four young children and I thought my husband was dead.”
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