First Aid Corps

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

Frank “Doc” Taylor, chairman of the social studies department at Enfield High School, was stricken Thursday night after speaking to the group Voices of Thompsonville.

Police Chief Carl Sferrazza was at the meeting and, using his police radio, called for paramedics.

The chief then checked Taylor, 74, and determined that he had no pulse and was not breathing.

Sferrazza began CPR and soon detected a pulse. About that time, paramedics arrived and began treating Taylor with a defibrillator, Sferrazza said.

Taylor, who has taught in Enfield for nearly 50 years, was taken by ambulance to Baystate Medical Center in Springfield.

“We’re just fortunate we were able to bring Mr. Taylor back,” Sferrazza said.

Taylor was listed in critical condition Thursday night at Baystate.

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

Frank Hermans & Mike Uttech

Mike Uttech, a 37-year-old businessman, collapsed while running on a treadmill at Western Racquet & Fitness Club in Ashwaubenon.

“I was on the treadmill about 5 miles an hour,” Uttech said. “About 4 minutes in, I felt really lightheaded. I stepped off the treadmill, and that was the last thing I remember until I had a paramedic standing above.”

Working out at a fitness club last week, entertainer Frank Hermans heard a thud nearby.

Uttech moaned and gasped in horrific ways, his eyes dilated and he turned blue, Hermans said.

“I couldn’t feel a pulse,” Hermans said.

Strangers sprang to action. One called 911. Others sought help within the club.

Noreen Van Den Berg was in a yoga class when someone burst in panicky, asking if anybody worked in the medical profession. Van Den Berg is a respiratory therapist, and she went to assist.

“I was the heart messager, and she took the breath,” Hermans said

Van Den Berg asked if an automatic external defibrillator (AED) was available, and one was brought from the front desk.

The CPR worked to begin with, and then they felt they had lost him,” said Reid Hans, general manager. “Then they shocked him with the AED and brought him back.”

Uttech began to breathe on his own, sit up and speak. After about eight minutes of help from members and staff, emergency medical personnel were on hand to take over.

The doctors told Uttech he would not have survived without the club’s defibrillator.

“It’s hard to realize how close to death you were,” Uttech said.

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

Officer John Bridges

A man in a business located on Highway 199 was having a heart attack.

Officer John Bridges arrived within one minute, but the victim didn’t have a pulse.

Amazingly, the officer had completed training for the use of an automated external defibrillator (AED) only two hours earlier. He grabbed the device from the trunk of his cruiser and went inside.

“We just finished the class an hour or two before the call,” he said Monday. “I arrived one minute later, and I knew (what the situation was). I just knew I had to do something, so I got it out and carried it in.”

The device begins giving voice instructions when the case is opened, starting with “Stay calm.”

The city’s ambulance service, Medstar, arrived nine minutes after the call. The man’s pulse had been restored and he was taken to Harris Methodist Northwest Hospital in Azle.

The defibrillator “is really a plus,” Bridges said. “As far out as we are, it takes a while for help to arrive.”

He was later taken to Harris Fort Worth, where he remains in intensive care.

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

Nurse Stacie Oxman

Oxman stepped out of her bathroom stall around 12:15 p.m. when she saw a woman lying on the ground, her daughter leaning over her and yelling, “Mom! MOM! Please, Mom!” and, “Can somebody please help my Mom!”

Gruenschlaeger had no pulse. Her head tilted back as she struggled to breathe. Her heart had gone into an irregular rhythm.

“Get me a defibrillator!” Oxman called out.

“I was scared to death,” Oxman said. “This is what I do for a living, but normally I have monitors and equipment and a whole team of people helping me. Here I was all alone with only my skills and my gut instincts.”

Minutes later, Cincinnati Police Sgt. Eric Franz arrived on the scene and radioed for a defibrillator, which is used to restore the heart to its normal rhythm after cardiac arrest.

The first time, the patient didn’t respond to the defibrillator, so Oxman continued CPR. She shocked her again, praying hard — and this time, Gruenschlaeger started breathing.

“That’s when I started to cry,” Oxman said. “That’s when I knew she would make it.” Oxman is thrilled “that it all worked, everything I’ve been trained to do.”

“We’ve known for years these things save lives,” concurred Franz. “It’s a really amazing computer. You put pads on a patient, press a button and it analyzes the heart rhythm and it doesn’t shock them unless their heart isn’t beating properly.”

Gruenschlaeger remembers very little of her ordeal: “I just remember washing my hands, and nothing else until they smacked me around in the ambulance.”

“I always believed nurses are special people, but she was a guardian angel to me,” Gruenschlaeger said.

Her first conversation with Oxman was emotional. “You saved my life,” she said. “There’s no other way to say it.”

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.