First Aid Corps

The Frontier Airlines flight had been in the air only 15 minutes when Linda Upchurch looked over and saw her husband convulsing, before slipping into unconsciousness-his mouth open and his eyes in a fixed stare.

She summoned flight attendants, who quickly began resuscitation efforts, capped by the use of a defibrillator. Her husband’s heart started beating again.

She and her husband, Mike Upchurch, of tiny Lamar, Okla., about 90 mile southeast of Oklahoma City, were reunited Monday at Will Rogers International Airport with the airline crew and others who came to his aid last March after he suffered a heart attack while on a flight from Oklahoma City to Denver.

One of the flight attendants was Emmett Adams, a longtime paramedic.

Adams estimates it was “within four minutes” from the time fellow attendant Sylvia Price was summoned and the time Upchurch was revived after being taken to the back of the plane. Pilot Paul Francois brought the plane back to Oklahoma.

“I don’t remember anything about the flight until I came to in the ambulance on the way to the hospital,” Upchurch said.

A few days later, he underwent successful bypass surgery at Integris Baptist Medical Center in Oklahoma City.

“What do you say to somebody who saved your life? Thank you is not enough,” Mike Upchurch, 55, said. “It was just God’s hand on me that put me in your hands.”

The day started out normally enough May 8 for Robert E. Lee Morgan III, a U.S. Army veteran and former commander of the Harry White Wilmer American Legion Post 82 in La Plata.

Courtney Thompson (left) & Robert E Lee Morgan III the Survivor

As he has done for the past 10 years or so, he left his La Plata home last month to go to La Plata High School to present awards to cadets serving with the U.S. Naval Junior Reserve Officer Training Corps.

“He was coming up to the podium to present an award to one of the cadets,” Chief Petty Officer Courtney Thompson, 18, said. “He had a cane and he took four or five steps and then he started to stumble backwards clutching his chest. Gunny [Bailey] grabbed him and Mr. Exline and Bridget Higgs started CPR. I tried to get him to talk to me.”

Morgan, 68, had suffered a heart attack.

.Thompson, retired firefighter and emergency medical technician Tony Exline, Gunnery Sgt. Clive Bailey and Bridgett Higgs, an emergency department nurse at Civista Medical Center in La Plata, rushed to Morgan’s side to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation and then use an automatic exterior defibrillator to jumpstart his heart, said retired U.S. Navy Lt. Cmdr. Ron Fry, the senior naval science instructor at the high school.

“I wanted to make sure that he was still responding,” Thompson said. “He stopped breathing and then they began CPR. They brought him back for a couple of minutes and then he went away again. The defibrillator brought him back and he started talking.”

“The thing that I was most proud of is that everyone remained calm,” Evelyn Arnold, the school’s principal, said. “It just worked like clockwork. Everything went together perfectly … I was proud of Courtney and all of the kids.”

Morgan said he only remembers starting to walk up to the podium and the next thing he knew he woke up at Civista Medical Center. From there he was flown to Washington Hospital Center where doctors found an artery leading to his heart that was 95 percent blocked.

“I’m very, very grateful to everyone who helped me,” he said, adding the blocked artery was taken care of and now he is doing fine. “I’m glad that they had a defibrillator at the school.”

Morgan’s wife, Eileen, said she is grateful to all of the folks who reacted quickly to help her husband, who is disabled because of a serious tractor-trailer accident in 1970.

“Thank you so much because he wouldn’t be here if not for you,” she said. “He’s a very lucky person.”

On the afternoon of June 17, physical education teacher James Landsverk asked his students to run one mile in laps around the track.

James Landsverk the Saviour

During his second lap, soon-to-be sophomore Henry Flores collapsed and did not respond when nearby classmates called out his name.

Teacher James Landsverk told supervisors he saw the student’s eyes roll back and heard him gasping.

The teacher performed CPR, yelled for one student to call 911 and another to get the school’s automated external defibrillator.

The student running to get school nurse Celeste Dillard found her in her office. Dillard didn’t know why Flores had collapsed, so she grabbed an EpiPen, radio and medical basket.

“I ran down the hallway, past the office on purpose,” Dillard said. “I said, ‘Guys, there’s something happening down on the field. Turn your radios on.’”

Landsverk used the AED to shock the student’s heart muscles back into a regular rhythm.

Dillard had to run across not only half of the school but also the entire football field, because Flores had collapsed on the south side, away from the main entrance. She took over CPR until the ambulance arrived.

Within minutes, aid personnel were on scene and able to get Flores to breathe on his own.

“At that point, I go into a different mode,” Dillard said. “We have a parent to call, we have distraught students, a distraught teacher and three kids who were standing there.”

School staff ushered students into the gym, where counselors and the school psychologist were waiting for them.

“We gave a quick heads up to the students,” Dillard said. “We said, ‘He’s in good hands now. He’s alive. We’ll give you more information.’”

He was taken to Seattle Children’s Hospital Medical Center and is recovering, a district spokesman said.

Hazen students made a large “get well” banner for Flores to hang in his hospital room.

“When he was waking up, he was able to see the sign,” Dillard said. “His mom liked it, too.”

When Dillard called him a few days later, she was able to talk to Flores himself. He had no prior health condition known to the school and had made the mile-long run before with no problem.

Landsverk worked in the district for two years as a PE teacher and assistant football coach knew how to operate the AED after training he received last fall.

“I really just reacted and began doing what I’ve been trained to do,” Landsverk said in a press release. “I wanted Henry to be OK.”

Dillard praised Landsverk and his students for saving Flores’ life.

“It definitely takes teamwork,” she said. “No one person can stand alone, you must be team oriented.”

Prof Pantridges' Portable Defibrillator

THE original portable defibrillator, invented in 1965 by the late Professor Frank Pantridge from Hillsborouogh.

It was first installed in a Belfast ambulance, weighing 70 kg and operating from car batteries.

This explains what we aim to achieve. Enjoy!

Also available is the video with English Subtitles.