PUTNAM COUNTY, W.Va. (WOWK) – Three days. That is how long Jess and Mary Kuhl had their baby girl, Maura, before she passed away from a sudden cardiac arrest in September 2003.
“Mary was in bed with her, and I was in with my son, and she just quit breathing. So, you know, it’s just a pretty quick, sudden experience that, you know, sort of changed our lives forever,” Jess Kuhl said.
Although they were dealing with grief, her death fueled them with inspiration to make sure all children have life-saving tools near them if they were to experience heart failure.
They started carrying an AED around with them, and quickly realized these devices need to be in all schools. That’s when they started the Maura Rae Kuhl AED Foundation.
“It was about putting them first, to take care of our kids, essentially. But then we realized the awareness was zero. And so it’s been about awareness, placing them, and maintaining them,” Kuhl said.
An AED was placed by the foundation at Scott Teays Elementary. And in October 2023, it saved Gryffin Cavender’s life after he experienced cardiac arrest in gym class.
“It was really shocking, as at first you, you don’t know what’s going on, and then you get there, and you see an ad on your child, and you realize what’s just happened. He’s been shocked that he was responsive, which was incredible,” Leigh Cavender, Gryffin’s mother, said.
It’s stories like Gryffin’s that inspire the family to continue the foundation.
Since it began in 2010, they have given nearly 200 AEDs to schools around the region.
And each year, the foundation holds a 5K at the Putnam County Courthouse to raise funds to pay for the AEDs.
Kuhl says Maura has made more of an impact in a three-day lifetime than some do in 90 years.
“We need to raise kids that are good kids, productive citizens. And, you know, we’re Christians. We want to get to heaven. And, you know, we’re one for three right now or one for four right now. We got an hour there and she’s made a big impact,” Kuhl said.
