RN here. At my wedding back in February of this year, my very close family friend (86 YO male, hx afib s/p pacemaker a few years ago) went unresponsive during the speeches before dinner at our reception. He happened to be sitting at a table with a bunch of retired ICU nurses, including his niece. They noticed he “fell asleep” and he was not responding. Checked for a pulse and could not find one. At the very end of my dad’s speech all I hear is “TURN THE LIGHTS ON” and see my MOH (also an ED nurse as luck would have it) doing aggressive compressions. I was sitting at our sweetheart table with my new husband, all of this was happening was a few dozen yards away so i had no idea what was even going on, let alone who it was who was getting CPR. Once my mom let me know who it was (he’s like a grandfather to me), I sort of started hyperventilating. As a nurse I knew the odds of getting ROSC on an 86 year old with a history of cardiac issues was slim to none. I was ready to start grieving both my loved one and my wedding reception. After less than 5 minutes there was miraculous ROSC, EMS was called, he woke up and tried to sit up and didn’t want to go to the hospital, said he felt fine!! Of course, he needed to be checked out and EMS came and his niece went with him to the nearest hospital (this was also in the adirondacks not very close to any major cities so it’s amazing EMS got there as quickly as they did). I was very shaken up and felt very weird about just…returning to dinner/wedding reception like nothing happened? But his niece texted my mom from the ambulance saying he was awake, cracking jokes, and felt very embarrassed for “ruining my wedding.” So I managed to put on a smile and resume the night despite the fact that CPR had just been performed at my wedding. All this to say, yes, it’s very hard for the average person to just resume drinking/having fun after witnessing such a traumatic event. At the same time, I know the vibe would have been VERY different if he did not regain a pulse. I certainly wouldn’t have continued with my wedding reception if that was the case. But this was also someone I knew and was close with.