First Aid Corps

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

The 54-year-old construction worker was working on a medical office building at 150 N. Willow, the offices of Cookeville Pediatrics, when he suffered an apparent heart attack.

“The call came in a Code 61, which means unconscious, and when we got there, Dr. Lloyd Franklin and another colleague were already out back doing CPR on the man,” said Cookeville Fire Department Lt. Chris Westmoreland, who is a paramedic.

The firefighters took over, and using an automated external defibrillator, shocked the victim’s heart “and got a pulse,” Westmoreland said.

Then, the Putnam Ambulance Service arrived on the scene and took the man to Cookeville Regional Hospital.

That was at about 1:30 p.m. Friday, and later that evening, Westmoreland called the hospital to check on him and was told he was in ICU in stable condition.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Somerset High School football coach Barry Poth has a lot to be thankful for these days.

The school’s athletic trainer, Sean Casey, saved his life recently after the 66-year-old collapsed in his office.

A fast thinking Casey started administering CPR and then used the athletic department’s automated external defibrillator to keep Poth alive until the Somerset Volunteer Fire Department arrived.

Poth, who had suffered a heart attack, was airlifted to a local hospital and underwent heart surgery.

Since his Oct. 21 ordeal, Poth has been given a clean bill of health and recently attended a Somerset football game.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Levi Pocza Saved

When 13-year old Levi Pocza collapsed, PE teacher Chris Broderick ran to call 9-1-1.

“When I came back into the room the other teacher said Levi didn’t have a pulse,” Broderick said.

Broderick started CPR, doing the breaths while principal Prato Baronee did the compressions.

Football coach Scott Hagerman — freshly trained in using the school’s automated external defibrillator, or AED — rushed it into the gym.

“It actually administered the shock, bringing him back to CPR state, and it said resume CPR and that’s what we did,” Broderick said.

For at least 10 minutes, they kept Levi alive until medics arrived and airlifted Levi to Children’s Hospital. As far as doctors can tell, Levi suffered no brain damage.

And Levi’s grateful parents say the AED and trained teachers are the reason.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Mark Peters Saved

When firefighters and paramedics found Mark Peters last Tuesday, the situation was dire. His pickup was smashed into a light pole near 97th and Bedford, he had no pulse and blood was coming from his ear.

Captain Scott Clifton and paramedics removed him from the truck and a defibrillator was used to revive him.

The shock brought him back to life, but after seeing the wreckage, firefighters thought Mr. Peters had a long road ahead of him.

Clifton didn’t believe it when Peters called his firehouse Monday and asked to thank the men and women who saved his life. The father of two is doing great, but says his chest is sore from the C.P.R. compressions.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

The 13-year-old, whose name was not released by police, was participating in exercises at Shin Karate Institute on the 2400 block of South Broad Street around 11:30 a.m. In front of his class and without warning, he fell to the floor unresponsive.

Karate instructor Sue Sienkiewicz could not detect the boy’s pulse, and she began performing CPR as a 911 call was made. Arriving on the scene moments later in advance of paramedics were officers Ryan Burger, Robert Colletti and Christopher Pullen.
 
The boy’s mother was notified, and immediately returned to the studio. Her son was taken to Capital Health System at Mercer.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

During the basketball drill at a recreation centre in Cochrane, the young Rosenau dove for the ball and attempted to get up but his legs didn’t work.

“I crawled a few feet and then I collapsed,” he said.

When Lorne Rosenau, the boy’s dad, who’s also the coach, saw the immobile lad lying on the floor, he thought his son was just faking it. The dad’s effort to rouse the boy was futile. He noticed a cut on the boy’s chin, but didn’t see blood flowing from it and there was very little blood on the floor.

“That was the first red flag,” said the man, who teaches at Western Canadian high school.

Then, he made this ugly sound of breath.”

The boy’s skin was starting to turn blue when the dad checked for a pulse. There was none.

He began performing CPR on his son, while somebody else brought in an automated external defibrillator.

“You really have no emotion at the time,” says Lorne. “You just do it. I think the building around me could’ve burned down and I wouldn’t have known.”

“He didn’t have a heart beat for 26 minutes,” said the older Rosenau. Paramedics arrived and took over the resuscitation efforts.

“I did what it took. I just feel fortunate that I was there and I knew what to do,” he says. “Curtis and I have a closer bond now. Between him and me, we kind of know. It’s special.”

“You’ll never know when it may help save your own family member,” said the dad.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Michael B. Roberts, who apparently was running late, was seen scurrying across Washington Avenue toward the McLennan County Courthouse early Friday. Seated in 54th State District Court for routine pretrial docket call, Roberts began experiencing difficulty breathing and suffered an apparent heart attack as Judge Matt Johnson was calling a list of defendants.

Coughran and Watson, who both have previous emergency medical training, started CPR on Roberts, whom Watson said was not breathing and did not have a pulse when they began.

“We knew we had to do something for him,” said Coughran, who like most of the 50 or so people in the courtroom at the time, appeared shaken and somber afterward.

Courthouse deputies Sgt. Jimmie Channon, Jack Campbell and Donald Taylor rushed a defibrillator from their first-floor office to the third-floor courtroom as Sheriff’s Office investigator James Pack, a former ambulance company paramedic, rushed over from the courthouse annex to help.

The deputies shocked Roberts with the defibrillator about 10 times and then turned over his care to paramedics as Larry Courtney, a courthouse deputy and Baptist minister, led a group that included Roberts’ wife, Wanda, in a prayer.

Roberts was rushed to Hillcrest Baptist Medical Center, where he was listed in critical condition Friday afternoon.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

A man walked into the State Police ground-floor office and told Sgt. Bruce Hay that a man had collapsed and was not breathing.

“Get the AED,” Hay shouted to his colleague, Sgt. Eric Fowlkes, who retrieved the device, called an automatic external defibrillator.

Jerome Loncosky, 77, is an officer with the state chapter of the Disabled American Veterans, who collapsed in his office on West Hanover Street.

Hay got to Loncosky first, on the fourth floor, and found coworkers doing CPR. Hay relieved them and first took a check of Loncos ky’s vital signs. He had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. So Hay, with coworker Donald Scholtes, started the CPR again. When Fowlkes arrived with Sgt. Darryl Humphrey, it became a team effort and they hooked up the device to Loncosky’s chest.

The machine — which speaks to the user — delivered one shock, then a second, as emergency responders started to arrive. They included Trenton EMS, Trenton Fire Engine Co. 10, who are also medical first responders, and the county paramedic crew of Mike Mooney and Kimberly Denelsbeck. As Mooney and Denelsbeck took control of the scene, just after the second shock, their own monitors showed Loncosky had re gained a pulse and was starting to breathe on his own.

Hay, a 16-year trooper and Fowlkes, a 20-year veteran, said they’d never had to use the AED, but train on it regularly. And they do not consider themselves heroes. “It could have been any one of us,” Hay said.

Loncosky, of Allentown, remained in critical condition at Capital Health System at Mercer hospital yesterday. Fowlkes added a personal touch and checked on Loncosky at Mercer hospital, where he met with his daughter and received the best accolade, he said, a personal thank you.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Hockey Player Saved

Trevor Forest suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during a break between hockey scrimmages at the NAIT hockey arena two weeks ago. His quick-thinking teammates resuscitated him with CPR and a public automated external defibrillator, a portable device that sends electric energy to the heart to return the heartbeat to normal.

“These guys are more than my teammates, they’re my buddies,” Forest said at a press conference. “And that night, they became my heroes. Without their quick-thinking response, I would not be here today.”

He credited his longtime friend and teammate Kevin Pollitt for having the training to apply the public defibrillator to save his life.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Officers Stan Bruno and Manuel Ruiz were on routine patrol when they got a dispatch at 9:43 a.m. to help paramedics dealing with an unconscious 54-year-old man. When they arrived at the station, they saw that paramedics had yet to arrive, so they got the defibrillator from their squad car and brought it to the platform.

The officers placed the device on the man. When it told them he needed to be shocked, they charged the device and administered two charges.

“The second shock converted the man’s heart to normal sinus rhythm,” Deputy Fire Chief Mark Pugnaitis said.

When the paramedics arrived, they stabilized the man and took him to West Suburban Hospital, where is reportedly doing well and is expected to recover.

“If the patient didn’t get electric stimulation to his heart muscle within five to 10 minutes, he would have died,” he said, noting that when a heart flatlines, there’s a 1 percent chance of survival.