First Aid Corps

Ken Jester and his wife, Helena, normally do their wall-climbing at a gym in Columbia.

Ken Jester the Survivor

But Aug. 3, the Elkridge residents drove their son, Paul, to the Earth Treks Climbing Center, in Timonium, so he could take a bouldering class.

While Paul was in class, the Jesters decided to do some climbing as well.

“I got about 10 feet up, got a little dizzy and was about to say ‘take’ so my wife would take my weight,” Jester said.

He never had the chance.

He went unconscious and hung limp from his climbing harness.

Climbing at the center when Jester becamet unconscious were Andrea Vella-Camilleri, of Hampden, and Lynn Addie, of Lancaster, Pa., both nurses. Once they realized Jester was in trouble, they helped his wife get him to the ground.

Addie checked his pulse and heard him gasp for air. She began administering rescue breathing while Vella-Camilleri performed chest compressions.

“He wasn’t moving at all,” recalled Kjeld Lauritzen, an Owings Mills resident and graduate student at Towson University, who was also climbing at the time.

Lauritzen yelled for someone to call 911 and retrieved the automated external defibrillator from behind the counter.

Through CPR training, he knew how to use the defibrillator and followed the audio prompts.

“You put the patches on and it analyzes,” he said.

The defibrillator decided that Jester needed a shock, and warned the others to stay clear.

Jester’s heart resumed a regular beat after the first shock and he returned to consciousness around the time paramedics arrived.

Capt. Steve Adelsberger, Baltimore County Fire Department’s public access defibrillator coordinator, said the climbers were correct in not waiting for the paramedics.

In fact, if it hadn’t been for Vella-Camilleri, Addie and Lauritzen, the odds would have been against Jester’s survival.

“CPR only buys time until the shock can be delivered,” Adelsberger said.

IPFW Senior Travis Barnes works at the Gates Sports Center.

On August 7, while working, he administered an Automatic Electronic Defibrillator to a basketball player who’d collapsed during a game and had stopped breathing.

That player was 44-year old Ken Solter, a local father of three.

“The only thing I remember is seeing nothing but gray and dropping to the ground,” said Solter. “After that I was trying to get up and it seemed like everything was pulling me back down.”

Barnes, 26, attributes his quick thinking to his training with the United State Marines, as well as additional CPR training from IPFW. He says he simply reacted.

“All those guys were there,” said Barnes, referring to Solter teammates that morning. “Everybody did what they were supposed to do and under the circumstances, everyone reacted perfectly.”

Solter said he didn’t really know how to thank Barnes for his grace under fire.

“I mean, what do you do, offer him a gift card?” Solter said, laughing. “Thank you just doesn’t seem to be enough. I’m very lucky to be here and I’m very thankful for everything [Barnes] and everyone else did for me.”

Richmond went to Bon Lin Middle School on Aug. 18 to check out his kids for an orthodontist appointment.

Kenneth Richmond the Survivor

He was chatting with the front office staff at about 3 p.m. and had written his first name on the sign-out sheet when the 41-year-old father collapsed in cardiac arrest.

With ink pen still in hand, Richmond slammed onto the tile floor, landing on his back, unconscious.

Also in the office that afternoon was cardiac nurse Dawn Graves, who was there to check out her son for a medical appointment. If she hadn’t sent him back to his classroom to get his backpack that he forgot, they would have been gone when Richmond collapsed.

“I just heard him hit the floor,” said Graves, a nurse at Methodist North Hospital.

She quickly dropped to his side and rubbed his chest and patted his face. His eyes were open and he was breathing, but he was out of it. He was sweating heavily.

She started performing CPR as an office staff member called 911. Assistant principal Jeremy Yow, also trained in CPR, quickly grabbed the defibrillator the school received last year.

They calmly followed the instructions on the device, alternating between electrical shocks through pads on Richmond’s chest and CPR.

Bartlett Fire paramedics arrived within three minutes and gave Richmond additional shocks on the way to Baptist Memorial Hospital-Memphis.

“I like saying that the Lord put everything in place for me to still be here,” Richmond said Monday, recovering in his Arlington home.

Richmond said he’d been to a heart doctor recently because he was having irregular heartbeats and was scheduled to see a rhythm specialist two days after he collapsed.

“If they didn’t have the AED to shock me, I probably wouldn’t be here,” Richmond said.

Serbrina Richmond, the firefighter’s wife, said she’s grateful that she made that orthodontist appointment for her kids, who usually ride the bus home from school.

Had she not, daughter Kennedy, 13, and son Kenny, 11, would’ve likely found their father passed out.

It was like angels watching over my husband,” she said. “He is a living miracle.”

Jennifer Trombly of St. Petersburg had just walked out of a Sweetbay Supermarket at about 6 p.m. when she heard a commotion and saw a man lying on the ground outside the store.

Jennifer Trombly the Saviour

Trombly called 911. She asked three men who were helping the victim if he was breathing or had a pulse. They said, “No.” She told the men to give the man two breaths to give him some oxygen.

Trombly, whose 9-year-old son has a condition that can cause him to go into a life-threatening arrhythmia, raced to her car and got her personal automated external defibrillator, or AED.

As she tried to get the defibrillator out of a backpack, she instructed the men to give 30 chest compressions and continue mouth-to-mouth.

Another man lifted the victim’s shirt. She put the tabs on his chest to analyze if a shock was needed. When the shock was advised, they told everyone to clear, and Trombly shocked him.

The men continued CPR and the victim, who had a name tag that identified him as Charlie, started to take irregular breaths.

Shortly afterward, St. Petersburg firefighters and paramedics arrived at the store, 6095 9 Ave. N, to find that Trombly had coordinated the rescue effort.

Trombly’s actions helped save the man’s life, said Lt. Joel Granata of St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue.

“She jump-started his heart with that,” Granata said.

Paramedics transported the man, whose name wasn’t released, to Bayfront Medical Center in serious condition.

“I don’t look at myself as a hero,” Trombly said Tuesday night. “All I did was use a tool I had and push a button.”

“I don’t feel like I did anything extra,” she said. “I think the guys who did the CPR are the real heroes. They kept him going until I could give him the shock.”

Trombly, a third grade teacher at Northwest Elementary, has had the AED for two years.

She said her family was trained on the machine when her son was diagnosed with having an irregular heartbeat.

“You never know when you’re going to use it,” she said.

“It is nice to know that people will still do good even if it’s a complete stranger,” Trombly said. “And that means a lot.”

Calling all iphone users! Our partners at The Extraordinaries have created an iPhone app to help us create a world map of AED locations.

Please help us with just a couple of minutes of your time.

Your can download the application HERE.

With a few touches on your iphone, you can help save a live!

These are a few photos of AED taken by our international volunteers!

Lubbock Police, Texas

Philips Healthcare, Seattle

San Francisco, US

Honolulu, Hawaii

NTU, Singapore

Ottawa, Canada

World Map
Please note that due to limits of Google Maps, not all AED locations are displayed.

View Larger Map

With more micro-volunteers coming forward, we can add more AED locations to the world map above.

Updates : First Aid Corps is mentioned in the UK!

Paul Insco was a referee working the 1996 McMinn County-McMinn Central game.

Paul Insco the Survivor ( third from left )

All of a sudden, Inscho suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground in what was a scary incident for everybody.

The football game was quickly forgotten as Inscho’s life hung in the balance.

Fortunately, Dr. David Byrd and Dr. Craig Riley were at the game that night and provided the medical assistance Insco needed.

“From Friday night to the next Tuesday I don’t remember anything so a lot of what I’m telling you is what others have told me,” Inscho said.

“I know it was near the end of the first half and apparently I just dropped to the ground. Dr. Riley said I was likely dead before I hit the ground. Dr. Riley and Dr. Byrd were there and after 15 or 20 minutes of CPR and seven shocks with a defibrillator, they got a heart beat.”

Insco was rushed to Woods Memorial Hospital and later transferred to the University of Tennessee hospital. At UT hospital, it was discovered he had 95 percent blockage of one his ventricles leading to his heart and had an emergency angioplasty.

Inscho is now a TSSAA referee supervisor while Dr. Byrd and Dr. Riley both have private practices. Insco went back onto the field as a referee in 1998 and last year became a TSSAA game officials supervisor.

“(AED) It’s something that you hope you don’t have to use, but you have it if you need it,” Inscho said. “I didn’t know if either Central or McMinn had an AED and I’m glad they do now. Dr. Riley and Dr. Byrd, and I’m sure there were others as well, are the heroes in all this.”

Lindsey was in his office around 6:30 a.m. when others on the track got the attention of assistant coach David Arvin.

A man had collapsed during a walk on the Cobb County Lassiter High School ’s track.

Arvin ran out, and Lindsey and Jim Brown followed.

The coaches started CPR, and deputy Richard Edwards grabbed the automated external defibrillator from the athletic field house.

The stricken man, who has not been identified, was shocked with the AED as emergency responders arrived, following a 6:49 a.m. call to 911.

“When we arrived, he did not have a pulse,” said Denell Boyd with the Cobb County Fire Department.

The man was taken to WellStar Kennestone Hospital after his pulse was detected.

“If there hadn’t been an AED in place and someone trained to use it, the man may not have survived,” Lassiter school nurse Audrey Dinoff said.

Paramedics Casey Porteous and Krista Law were trackside at Hiawatha Horse Park about 5:20 p.m. Thursday when horseman Roger Hamm fell from a sulky during a race qualifier.

Roger Hamm being Saved

Hamm had no vital signs.

“I could see there was no movement so I jumped the fence and ran out on the track. There was no pulse. He was dead,” said Porteous.

He undid the horseman’s clothing, removed his flak jacket and started CPR compressions.

Law jumped the fence too and began artificial respiration.

“Someone came with a defibrillator, put one shock into him and brought him back. Minutes later he was alert and talking.

“I’ve been doing this for six years and this is the first time I’ve ever seen someone come back,” Porteous said. “To have someone we’ve brought back and then talk to him … that’s an amazing feeling.”

He estimates two to three minutes elapsed from the time Hamm fell to the time he was revived.

Law accompanied Hamm’s wife on the way to Bluewater Health and learned her 68-year-old husband has been horseracing for decades.

“We sat and talked to him and he couldn’t say thank you enough,” Porteous said. “I told him it wasn’t his time.”

Tony Renouf suddenly fell ill while working out at Les Quennevais Sports Centre in October 2007.

Tony Renouf (second from left) the Survivor

Two members of staff – Rob Hamon and Simon Abels – immediately began to use a defibrillator on the unconscious Mr Renouf while paramedics were called to the gym.

They restarted his heart after sending four shocks through his body.

The retired former abattoir worker was later told that he would have died if the pair had not used the machine.

Mr Renouf said: ‘I used the cross-trainer for about 15 minutes and then the bike, and that was the last thing I remember of being in the gym. If it hadn’t been for the two lads and the defibrillator, I wouldn’t be here today.

Bennett was taking a trip to the new Sonic on Front Street in Dickinson with her husband, Edward.

He got out of the car to look at the menu, and when he got back in the passenger seat, his wife had a weird expression on her face.

He called her name. No response.

He waved his hand in front of her face. No response.

Then he noticed her lips turning white. He immediately plugged her nose and gave her breaths.

Edward Bennett, 48, a Binghamton truck driver, said his 47-year-old wife almost seemed to be struggling to breathe as he ran into the restaurant to have someone call 911.

He didn’t think to check her pulse because her medical history was related to breathing problems. She had a history of asthma and the beginning stages of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

The dispatcher told a Sonic employee that Bennett needed to get her out of the car and onto the ground to begin breathing techniques associated with CPR.

As he did that, Broome County Sheriff Sgt. Scot McDonald arrived at the scene and took control.

He gave her two breaths and checked for a pulse. When he found none, he did chest compressions and later he hooked her up to an automatic external defibrillator (AED) that sheriff’s deputies keep in the trunks of patrol vehicles.

He shocked her once. When her heart didn’t start, he shocked her again.

“I was bawling. I was crying. I just wanted to see her come back,” Edward Bennett said. “I was terrified.”

About a minute later, Morris, a paramedic with Chenango Ambulance, arrived in his personal car. He was followed shortly by two ambulances.

“When I got there, Scot was on the ground doing excellent CPR, using the AED as he is trained,” said Morris.

Nancy has since been released from the intensive-care unit at Lourdes Hospital and her husband said doctors told him her heart is strong.

She’s still struggling to breathe and is sore from her ribs breaking during chest compression, but all things considered, she’s doing well, Edward Bennett said.

“The sheriff got there quick. Thank God he had the defibrillator with him,” he said. “If it wasn’t for him, I’m pretty sure my wife would be dead or have brain damage.”