BALTIMORE COUNTY, Md. — Patrice Bullock received an exciting delivery at her Baltimore County home on Monday: a first look at her first book.
Maryland mother writes book five years after son died of sudden cardiac arrest
"So surreal," Bullock said. "I just can't believe that...I was really able to put grief, purpose, hope, mission, and just rebuilding into words."
It's called 8 Minutes and 45 Seconds: A Child's Heart, The Bailey Bullock Story. That's how long it took for her son Bailey to get CPR after he collapsed on May 12, 2021, after a track and field event at John Carroll High School in Bel Air. He was 16 years old.
"After learning that Bailey passed, once we realized it had to do with urgency, minutes, response time, we went right into working right away," Bullock said.
She started the Bailey's Heart and Soul Foundation in his memory.
WMAR 2 News caught up with her in 2024, shortly after the passage of the Bailey Bullock Act, requiring emergency response plans in all public schools in Maryland.
"We want community members, middle schoolers, high schoolers to get comfortable with knowing how to hit that green button on an AED, how to respond when someone collapses, knowing the survival chain of command," Bullock said.
While she was working, she was also journaling.
"Your pain, your emotion, putting those into words can actually help assist with the grieving process. It will not take the pain away, just make it much more bearable," Bullock said.
She didn't know that she would one day print those words for others to read.
"Grieving mothers, those siblings who have lost a brother, a sister, coaches, churches, organizations," Bullock said. "The takeaway is that time is important."
Bullock wants to raise awareness and help others in similar situations. She walks others through her grief journey, what happens when cameras aren't rolling and when eyes aren't watching, in the book, which comes out in August.
You can order it on Amazon; the book actually went best-seller within a few minutes of being online.
For her, that is confirmation that others resonate with what she's doing and that she's carrying her son's legacy on.
"Bailey's life mattered. Bailey as a person mattered. 8 mins and 45 seconds was a delay, but I want people to know that Bailey will save a life. And everyone can save lives," Bullock said.
To order her book, click here. For more information about learning CPR, click here or here.
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