We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.
Phil Nusser Saved
Refereeing a basketball game at Ellinwood High School on Jan. 6, Phil Nusser collapsed on the gym floor. His heart stopped beating, and there was no pulse.
Nusser had gone into cardiac arrest.
Billinger, a Washburn University freshman, happened to be home from college for semester break and attended the game.
“I was talking to a friend and heard people yelling and a whistle blowing,” Billinger said.
An off-duty registered EMT for the past six months, she jumped into action.
“There was another EMT, a firefighter, several nurses and my dad, who’s a highway patrolman,” Billinger said of people who rushed to help Nusser. “I called 911 and got the defibrillator, attached it and followed the steps.”
She shocked Nusser’s heart and brought him back quickly. It was the first time she had used the device on a person.
“I didn’t think about it,” Billinger said. “I was just worried about the ref.”
Whisked out of the gym and flown by helicopter to Hutchinson’s Promise Regional Medical Center, doctors removed a blood clot and inserted a stent.
That he survived, with no damage to his heart, is nothing less than a miracle, says Nusser, a St. John resident, who is the Stafford County Roads and Bridge supervisor.
A week later, he has fully recovered and has returned to work, he said. Tuesday night, he was back in the same gymnasium to watch a niece from Lyons play basketball against the Ellinwood girls.
“The stars were lined up in my favor,” he said. “This could have happened at work where I’m by myself a lot, or it could have happened on the living room couch.”
Nusser was thankful he was in Ellinwood, where they have AEDs, when it happened.
“I woke up in the gym,” he said. “I was in the best place to be if something like that was going to happen.”
