First Aid Corps

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

The 23-year-old painter was atop a 20-foot-tall scissor lift with a co-worker, sanding the tail of an aircraft, when he blacked out from cardiac arrest.

Michael Loggins, Jesse Barnes, Anthony Hunt, David Lockhart, Gregory Moore, Brian Weaver and Tom Crabtree the Saviours

Once on the ground, he was successfully kept alive, using a combination of Cardiopul-monary Resuscitation and the AED, until medical help could arrive.

“There is a young person still enjoying life because people did what they were trained to do,” said Marcus Brown, public access defibrillator base coordinator. “It was a successful use.”

“He’s going to be OK,” said David Lockhart, aircraft painter and work team leader who used the AED to save his young co-worker. “If it hadn’t been for the AED, his two daughters would have been without a daddy.”

That afternoon Mr. Lockhart put his years of training on the AED to real-life use for the first time. Mr. Lockhart said his training dictated his actions.

“I took the AED and did my job,” he said.

The pads of the AED were applied to the victim, which advised the users to apply a shock. The unit then advised CPR for several minutes before noting a change in the victim’s heart rhythm. Another shock was administered, which restored the victim’s heart rhythm. Emergency Medical Services were on the scene within three minutes.

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

Shortly before 1 p.m., several travelers gathered at a Southwest Airlines gate waiting to board a plane to Nashville when one of the passengers, a man in his 50s, collapsed and appeared to suffer a seizure.

A flight attendant grabbed a defibrillator from the plane and handed it to Gamez who immediately began to operate the life-saving device.

Gamez, a 25-year Chicago police veteran who’s assigned to Midway, also began CPR along with a doctor who was at the gate. Gamez then used shock paddles to help revive him, just one week after the officer received the training on how to operate a defibrillator.

The man was taken to a local hospital where he was listed in stable condition and undergoing further treatment, police said.

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

A 53-year-old North Andover man was sitting near Track 10 in the lobby area of the station at about 7 p.m. when he collapsed, according to a police report. He had suffered a cardiac arrest, said Transit Police Lieutenant Robert Lenehan.

Patricia Rogers and Alex Santos the Saviours

But thankfully Rogers is a nursing student and Santos is a medic in the Army. Also nearby was Candice Kruszkowski, a nurse from Children Hospital. The three raced to save the stranger.

“Somebody said he was going into a seizure and we moved him down to the ground and positioned him and he started turning blue, so we tried to open up an airway, check to see if he had a pulse,” Santos said.

“It happened so quickly, but it was so nice to have other people there with me, just to know there are people around that will help others,” nurse Patricia Rogers said.

“He was turning blue so he had no air going into him, so we just started CPR. You know it was cool because we had a team going. I started compressions she got the AED going,” Santos said.

Two transit police officers noticed the commotion. One ran to retrieve one of the newly installed automated external defibrillator devices, which deliver electrical shocks to revive victims of cardiac arrest. The good Samaritans continued CPR and used the defibrillator until an ambulance arrived, Lenehan said.

“It was a total team thing from the start all the way until EMS got there. And EMS did their thing and the transition was smooth,” Santos said.

“I kept seeing his wedding ring, so I knew somebody was out there. He has family and someone loves this man and was expecting him to come home,” Rogers said.

The man was taken to Massachusetts General Hospital where he was listed in good condition on Thursday.

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

About 4.45pm 22-year old Diarmuid O’Connell suddenly and without warning collapsed to the ground.

One eye witness told The Corkman that umpires immediately brought on a stretcher to the young man and quickly realised that his condition was serious.

Luckily, a portable defibrillator, bought for the Castlemagner club two years ago, which was just 20 yards away and was brought to his side. His two quick-acting team mates, Gearoid O’Leary and DJ Collins put their CPR (cardio pulmonary resuscitation) and AED (Automated External Defibrillator) training to fast use.

“Gearoid and DJ knew that it was serious as Diarmuid was out cold and a defibrillator will not give a shock unless it is needed,” said an eyewitness. “The two boys working on Diarmaid remained calm and were in full control at all times. This all happened so suddenly and without warning. Everything that could be done was done and it was done efficiently.”

An ambulance went immediately to the pitch at Castlemagner, as did a doctor from Southdoc and the Gardai. The ambulance subsequently received a Garda escort to CUH.

Diarmuid works as a teacher in Rathmore and he started the game playing wing forward.

Millstreet referee Denis Hickey said he suddenly heard roaring and shouting. “It was a terrible shock and thankfully there was a defibrillator at Castlemagner,” he told The Corkman. “This is now a wake-up call to other clubs in the area who do not have one.”

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

Sometime on Saturday night, Jan. 24, at the Delbarton School basketball court in Morristown, N.J., hearts stopped.

Well, just one actually stopped, but many others skipped a beat at least. Poly Prep’s starting senior point guard and leader on both ends of the court, Stephen Lazzaro, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during the opening quarter. “It was quite scary,” said assistant coach Glenn McCartney, who helped Lazzaro to the gym floor.

CPR, administered rapidly by Stephen’s dad and teammate Michael Kumar’s dad, Sampath Kumar M.D., both physicans, plus a defibrillator on the scene saved this young man’s life.

A Fund in the name of Stephen Lazzaro has been set up at SUNY Downstate for the purpose of raising monies for cardiovascular research to study valvular heart disease and arrhythmias.

Stephen has turned his attention from playing to helping the team by acting as a mentor to the younger players while helping Head Coach Bill McNally on the bench. He has been an inspiration to many while he rehabilitates from these recent events.

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

Brian O’Leary was running up the court at the end of his weekly game in the YMCA’s over-50 basketball league, just as he has done thousands of times in thousands of other games over the years.

Only this time he felt different. First he became very dizzy. Then he felt himself falling down. The next thing he remembered, he was in an ambulance headed for Beverly Hospital.

Mary Ellen Mayo wasn’t even supposed to be at the YMCA’s Sterling Center on the night of Feb. 4. She had switched shifts with a colleague in the manager-on-duty rotation.

When she heard someone running to the front desk to call 911, she grabbed the first-aid kit and the automated external defibrillator that is always on hand at the Y.

By the time she reached O’Leary lying on the basketball court, he had stopped breathing and his heart had stopped beating. His face was deep blue.

Mayo tossed a CPR mask to a doctor who had stopped at the Y to pick up his son from swimming lessons. While the doctor administered CPR, one of the basketball players pressed on O’Leary’s chest.

The reading on the defibrillator showed no heartbeat. So Mayo, who has been teaching lifesaving classes for years, placed the pads on O’Leary’s chest and gave him one shock. His heart started beating, and his pulse returned.

“I had the easiest job because the machine tells me exactly what to do,” Mayo said. “The doctor and the player were the first responders.”

“If it wasn’t for her, I wouldn’t be here,” O’Leary said. “That’s what the doctor said. He didn’t even know how she brought me back.”

O’Leary’s wife, Marie, said she has heard stories about how expertly and calmly Mayo responded that night.

“She was really, truly a hero in this whole thing,” she said.

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

When Gary Terry, a former telecommunications executive called it quits after a 32-year career, he took up an equally time-consuming volunteer job as chairman of the American Heart Association’s Texas chapter.

“I was trying to get back to the metroplex because I had a meeting the next morning. I reached down to pick up my briefcase, and I kept going.”

Here’s where the story takes an ironic twist: Gary Terry collapsed just 18 feet from an automated external defibrillator AED that he and his group — the American Heart Association — helped to install just eight months earlier.

But the circumstances of Terry’s experience are unique, because there was a defibrillator nearby, and somebody knew how to use it.

“I think this is part of the plan, and I think he wants me to keep telling people what a great piece of equipment the AED is.”

“I’m gonna try to put AEDs in every building and in every house, and then I’m gonna hang them on trees.”

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

Without warning, Greg Boorsma, 39 years old, became a little shaky and collapsed on the bench during a recreational hockey game during the Aaron Kitchen Memorial tournament.

Beside him was Paul Lymburner, who has been in similar situations and recognized the severity of the situation. He has administered CPR in the past and he knew Greg required it. He immediately called out for teammates to find his wife Colleen, who is a nurse and was watching, along with another friend and nurse, Tracy House.

They rushed to the bench and found that Greg’s vital signs were absent.

Another teammate, Mike Schmalz, was on the ice when the episode began.

But upon realization that the nurses could not get a pulse, he immediately rushed to the lobby to retrieve the recently-installed defibrillator. Others called for staff to call 911.

Greg was transported to Haldimand War Memorial Hospital before being transferred to Hamilton General, where he remains in stable condition.

Although the situation was grave at the time, Joanie said, “Thank God it happened when it did and there people there to help and do what needed to be done,” she said.

Joanie was very thankful for her friends and Greg’s teammates. “We owe Colleen and Tracy a world of thanks. They’re angels,” she said.

“I was sitting with Tracy and Colleen and we thank our lucky stars that we had the help we had,” said Joanie.

“Everyone involved was wonderful. Mike (Schmalz) took charge and made sure the girls had room to work. The whole team was just wonderful, awesome,” she said.

She added, “Thank God the defib was in the area.”

And although Tracy had never used a defibrillator before, she had performed CPR at the hospital. She was happy to have her lifelong friend Colleen, who has had experience using the defibrillator in the hospital, beside her.

“When we’re doing this, we’re thinking about his wife beside us and his three children and we thought, ‘We have to get him back; this has to work’, said Collleen.”

“I’m still a bit shaky but feel great that it worked. It (the defibrillator) was there and it worked. We definitely had to have the machine,” added Colleen.

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

Eric McDonnell, an athletic trainer, said it happened at about 12:25 p.m., 35 minutes before tip-off. A relative of the man noticed he was having trouble breathing and, with assistance of ushers, brought him to a “backstaging area” at court level and laid him on an exercise mat.

A university police officer performed emergency breathing, an usher applied the pads from the defibrillator device to the man’s chest and another performed chest compressions. Within minutes, the device detected a “shockable rhythm” and restored the man’s heartbeat.

“I don’t think anyone in the crowd actually realized what happened,” McDonnell said. The entire process “worked just like it’s supposed to.”

“I feel that all those involved with this incident showed extreme professionalism in taking care of this man in his moment of need,” said Frank Hoelzeman, an events assistant who was on the phone with emergency medics throughout the incident.

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

Coach Drew Black the Saviour

“I was on the rowing machine [when] on my right, I noticed someone standing next to the treadmill, looking at someone else who was lying face-down on the machine,” Ahmed, a certified EMT, wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “I checked for level of responsiveness; he was not responding to verbal communication.”

There are two public-access automated external defibrillators (AEDs) in the Freeman Athletic Center, both on the upper level—one to the right of the entrance to the fitness center, and one outside the hockey rink corridor, across from the Bacon Field House entrance.

As Ahmed rushed outside the fitness center to retrieve the AED, Kavett made sure the emergency responders were notified.

Jamal Ahmed the Saviour

“I ran to the phone, where someone else (an older man) connected with the 911 operator,” Kavett wrote in an e-mail to The Argus. “Soon thereafter, another person called—I think—directly to the fire department, since they are just a block away from Freeman. While Jamal and Coach Black worked on reviving the collapsed man, I waited by the downstairs door for the firefighters (they were expected to get there first) to arrive at Freeman, to make sure they reached the man as quickly as possible.

”The defibrillator advised a shock, which Ahmed delivered before beginning CPR. Ahmed delivered 30 chest compressions, followed by two breaths from Black. After Ahmed performed another round of compressions, Black attempted to deliver two more breaths but was unable to open the patient’s jaw.

“His mouth was cemented shut,” Black said.

“Jamal was like, ‘Modified jaw thrust! Modified jaw thrust,’ a thing that you do especially with someone who has had a head injury—you don’t move the neck. As he’s trying to do that, I re-tilted the head and pulled the mouth open.”

After this, the defibrillator analyzed the patient and again advised another shock. Ahmed delivered the shock and resumed CPR in conjunction with Black.

“I had asked a bystander…to lift the patient’s legs to keep the blood going to his vital organs,” Ahmed wrote. “We continued CPR until the machine began analyzing again, and this time it advised no shock. We continued CPR and the patient began to breathe again, and even woke up and was slightly responsive/aware, but he could not say his own name.”

“The second time he came through, his hand came up,” Black said. “I grabbed his hand, and I just said, ‘Stay with us. You’re here, stay with us. You’re going to be fine.’ As I was doing that, the EMTs got there.”

“They inquired if I had delivered the shocks,” Ahmed said, “and I said, ‘Yes, twice,’ to which they responded, ‘Beautiful.’”

“[The EMTs] just said, ‘Hey, you guys did a great job,’” said Black, who said of Ahmed, “He’s going to make a hell of a doctor. He’s already saved his first patient.”

The patient was taken to Middlesex Hospital and later transferred to Yale-New Haven Hospital.