First Aid Corps

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

Mike Spillman the Survivor

“Mike, 17, collapsed in the school gym during a pickup basketball game.

Gym supervisor Ross Peterson, who is a physical education instructor, and students Joel Willenbring and Demetre Growette administered CPR.

A police officer quickly arrived on the scene and used the school’s automated external defibrillator to jolt Mike’s heart into rhythm.

“They brought me back,” Mike said quietly last week, sitting in the home dugout at John Burch Park in Cannon Falls, located between the Twin Cities and Rochester.

An ambulance took him to the local hospital and a helicopter transported him to St. Paul Children’s Hospital. He was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, a thickening of the heart muscle that forces the heart to work harder than normal.

Today, Mike Spillman was finally back in action, playing high school baseball after months of waiting for doctors to give him the go-ahead. In his first at-bat of the season earlier this month, the junior from Cannon Falls lashed a run-scoring double against Kasson-Mantorville. He later advanced to third base, sliding headfirst into the bag.

“When he did that, the fans were gasping,” Cannon Falls coach Bucky Lindow said.

The fans weren’t gasping at Spillman’s speed. They were gasping because he has a pacemaker in his chest.

Seeing Mike on the baseball field is a relief for his family. The hard part came in September, when he nearly died.

“I don’t even think about it, because he’s safer now than he was without the pacemaker,” Penny Spillman said of her son.

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

Police responded to a call of a man not breathing at 12:08 a.m. in the 300 block of South Pennsylvania Avenue, police said.

Upon arrival, responders used an Automated External Defibrillator, shocking the 65-year-old man once before he started breathing again and his pulse began to stabilize, said. Lt. Rob Lamborghini.

The man was transferred to Foothill Presbyterian Hospital where he was talking and alert, Lamborghini said.

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

Members of the Baxter fire department received the call at 11:03 a.m. Wednesday and were first to arrive at the scene at First Avenue North at 11:04 a.m.

“Toby (Lee, an engineer with the Baxter Fire Department) went in the home, I was gathering other equipment, and the gentleman was on the floor, obviously unconscious,” Baxter Fire Chief Chris Holmes said. “So Toby put the AED on him and it advised a shock.”

An AED detects two heart rhythms that require a shock, and the man was shocked once before emergency officials were instructed to begin CPR.

“On the way there he was becoming alert and waking up, and when we got him to the hospital, he was fully alert saying he wanted to go home,” Holmes said.

The man, who was not named but said to be in his 60s, was still in ICU at the hospital as of Thursday afternoon and was expected to recover.

“I have no doubt that they saved that man’s life,” Holmes said. “It was a team effort, and they just did a super job.”

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

Shocked teammates of the Delray Beach school, huddled in right field in a post-game meeting, had no idea what was happening Wednesday night after the team’s 5-4 win at West Boca High. Some screamed she was having a seizure. Claire Dunlap was not breathing.

“We were all laughing and were having a fun time before she fell down,” Heritage-Delray senior catcher Lauryn Wright told the Sun Sentinel.

“At first we didn’t think anything was wrong until she began convulsing like she couldn’t catch her breath.”

Palm Beach County Fire Rescue Capt. Roberto Grau who was watching his son finish a baseball game at a nearby field, came running over.

“I took a peek over there and saw a bunch of people gathered around somebody laying in the outfield,” said Grau, who has worked for Palm Beach County Fire-Rescue for 18 years, plus an additional three years in fire service.

“As soon as I looked at her I knew she was in cardiac arrest. I thought if she’s not coded, she’s about there.”

“People were in the panic mode,” said Grau, a 22-year veteran. “They were hysterical. I don’t think anybody really knew what was going on.”

With the school’s trainer, Grau placed an oxygen mask on Dunlap and then checked her pulse. There was none. They reached for an automatic external defibrillator, which the trainer carried in her golf cart, in an effort to revive her heart.

“We turned it on and it did its thing,” said Grau who helped the school’s trainer administer the shocks.

After three jolts, Grau saw her chest begin to rise, but she remained unconscious. Three minutes after she passed out, paramedics arrived.

Robert Stone is the Headmaster of the American Heritage School. He says, “I think they were trying regular CPR and she was not responding. She was at great risk and if they had not had that (defibrillator) she might not have made it.”

“No prior warning at all in fact she had a perfect day at school. I was with her for part of the time working on a project.”

Dunlap, 15, remains in intensive care at West Boca Medical Center, where the sophomore will undergo tests to determine what caused an apparent seizure that stopped her breathing and then her heart, Headmaster Robert Stone said.

Update

Sarah Donner hugs Claire Dunlap

In the American Heritage Delray 2A regional game Tuesday night, the team takes the field except for center fielder Claire Dunlap.

Dunlap stands in the dugout not because she’s benched and not because of grades, but because two weeks ago, she died.

“People were screaming ‘She’s having a seizure’ so immediately I said to one of the kids in class ‘Please go get the AED’ as I was running over there and when I got there I could tell it wasn’t a normal seizure. Something was wrong with her. I checked for breathing. I checked her pulse and she was unresponsive,” says Donner.

“I remember her mom holding her hand screaming ‘You have to save Claire, you have to save her’ and I remember thinking to myself… You have to do something to help this girl,” says Donner.

“Most of the time we take them to the hospital. We really don’t hear the end result so for this, kinda hit home, because I’m a baseball coach and we get to see the girls come in and out from the softball field so we have a little bit more tie to this and seeing the end result with Claire just making it better for us to see that she’s doing ok now,” says Manriquez.

“I’m just glad that we were able to make such a difference in a young person’s life,” says Grau.

Dunlap will have a better idea of when she can return to sports in about six weeks.

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

A Residential Programs and Services supervisor saw a 47-year-old RPS food services worker fall to the floor in a kitchen in Forest Quad, said IUPD Capt. Jerry Minger, reading from a police report.

Co-workers called 911 at 3:33 a.m., according to an IUPD press release.

IUPD Sgt. Shannon Ramey arrived and found the woman with an irregular heart rhythm and with trouble breathing, Minger said.

Ramey started CPR until IUPD Officer Joe Amandola arrived with an automatic external defibrillator, a machine that regulates heart rhythm.

Officers placed one electrode on her side under her arm and another on her chest so the machine could assess her heart.

The machine’s voice command told officers she needed a shock to reset her heart rhythm, Minger said.

The machine sent electricity through the woman’s body and her heart started to beat normally.

“The person would have died if this had not happened,” Minger said.

Officers continued to perform CPR breathing on the woman until a Bloomington Hospital ambulance arrived.

The woman had not complained about illness or discomfort prior to the incident, Minger said.