We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.
David Page the Saviour
It was an early morning tennis lesson and then a bucket of balls to practice his serve.
Minutes into his practice the tennis player – just a month into learning the sport – collapsed on the court at the Coto de Caza Golf and Racquet Club.
He wasn’t breathing. His heart stopped beating.
David Page is in the tennis business – not in the business of saving lives. At least that was the case up until Wednesday when he looked up from the lesson he was teaching and saw one of his students – and friend – down.
Page, 47, ran inside the club and grabbed the Automated External Defibrillator. With firefighters on their way, Page began CPR.
The AED’s mechanical voice told him what to do and he did what he was told as he tried to shock his friend back to life.
He has a wife. He has a family. He had things to live for.
“You want to give the heart a little jumpstart,” Page said.
It was here where 12 years of CPR training came rushing in. And the sessions on how to use the AED – which had been installed at the club more than five years ago. Page knew how to use it. He just never expected he would have to.
“When you really have to do it it’s a whole different program,” Page said. “It was miraculous,” Page said. “I kept telling him ‘don’t do this to me. You better come through.’”
Three minutes after the 911 call firefighters from the Orange County Fire Authority arrived. The man had no pulse. His heart was quivering with no rhythm or beat. Page tried to get up to get out of their way. But the firefighters wouldn’t have any of it.
“They told me ‘get back down there and finish your chest compressions,’” Page said. So he did, helping OCFA Firefighter Paramedic Jim Bush continue CPR as Bush used an AED one more time on the fallen man.
Two minutes after firefighters arrived, he had a pulse and he was breathing on his own. Within five minutes he was opening his eyes.
Not many people come back from this,” said OCFA Capt. Jack Perisho who responded to Wednesday’s call of a man in full arrest. “I truly believe that because of the actions of David Page this guy is alive now.”
“Thank God,” Page said. “I love that man so much. I am just glad I was there to help.”
