First Aid Corps

Bob Hampson, 62, was at his home in Ruskington when he began to suffer serious heart problems.

But as he slipped into cardiac arrest, his wife called for the emergency services, which sent the local member of Lincolnshire Integrated Voluntary Emergency Service.

Within six minutes, LIVES responder John Harman, 64, had reached the unconscious Mr Hampson, and using the life-saving defibrillator – which can prevent the death of a patient suffering cardiac arrest – administered an electric shock to his heart.

His swift actions late last month helped gain vital minutes before paramedics could reach the scene.

An ambulance could take up to eight minutes to reach the village near Sleaford, by which time any possibility of restarting a failing heart would have been lost.

Mr Hampson, retired, said he owes his life to his local LIVES team.

He said: “Although I don’t remember what happened, at one stage it was critical. I feel sure that if I had not been given treatment from the defibrillator, I wouldn’t be here now. I’m incredibly grateful to John, my wife and the paramedics.”

On Oct. 5, the Knights were about 15 minutes into a routine practice at Crestwood Baptist Church when 17-year-old Josh Howard fell to the floor.

OKC Knight coach Randy Graham, had his back to Howard at the time but was quickly by Josh’s side.

“I picked up his head and thought he was having a seizure,” Graham said. “His jaw was just clinched tight, and his arms were locked up near his chest.”

Graham worked to give Howard breaths while 911 was called. Most of Howard’s Knights teammates were on the floor almost immediately after Howard went down, praying for their fallen teammate.

Paramedics were at Howard’s side in less than 10 minutes.

Twice before leaving the gym, Howard received shocks from a defibrillator. He had to be shocked another time when he got to the hospital.

First, he was taken to St. Anthony’s. Doctors there determined the damage to his heart was too severe for them to treat, so once he was stabilized, he was moved to Children’s Hospital.

For three days, Howard remained in a coma. Graham walked into the hospital room at about 7:30 a.m. that morning. “Hey, Coach,” Howard said as he rolled over. If nothing else, Howard was awake and alert.

“There’s no other word to describe it other than grateful,” Graham said. “I’m so thankful, and I know that Jack and Debbie Howard, his parents, are as well.”

“On Oct. 5, I was hoping he would live. I had no hope that he would live. He was blue. I couldn’t even have dreamed of him being where he is right now. We call him our miracle.”

Dwayne G. Miller was in the locker room after finishing his shift at Teleflex Medical Inc., which manufactures medical devices in Bern Township.

Michael Senishen (right) the Survivor

“Person down in the hallway,” someone screamed.

Michael J. Senishen, reporting for second shift, had blacked out and was lying near the locker room entrance.

Dwayne, who’d been trained in life-saving techniques, rushed to his co-worker’s aid.

“I got to him about a minute after he collapsed,” recalled Dwayne, 46, of Muhlenberg Township, who’s been involved in firefighting and rescue operations for 28 years in the Leesport area.

“He was unresponsive, had no pulse and was not breathing.”

Dwayne began CPR, interspersing chest compressions with mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Teleflex’s safety supervisor, Gerry Hart, joined in the life-saving effort.

Teleflex has a team of workers trained in CPR and emergency techniques, including use of an automated external defibrillator, or AED.

Maintenance supervisor Tom Gentile rushed one of the AEDs, which are stationed throughout the plant, to the scene. The first jolt brought no response. The second fared no better.

The clock was ticking. Twenty minutes had passed since Mike had collapsed.

Dwayne, recognizing the odds were shifting against Mike, began to fear the worst.

As he prepared the defibrillator for a third deployment, an astonishing thing happened: Mike started breathing.

The breaths were faint and irregular at first.

“He was struggling,” Dwayne recalled. “The great thing, though, was that he was breathing on his own.”

Dwayne handed Mike’s care over to Western Berks Ambulance medics, who administered oxygen and rushed Mike toSt. Joseph Medical Center.

Mike has difficulty finding words to express his gratitude to the co-workers who brought him back from the brink.

That his co-workers were trained and worked together as a team, Mike said, certainly had a lot to do with his survival.

Dwayne agrees but thinks something more intangible was at work.

“I guess you’d have to say,” he reasons, “it was a case where all the stars fell right in line.”

Mike’s doctors tell him he’s doing fine. He’s still in cardiac rehabilitation, but has been cleared to return to work after the holidays.

Mike makes no pretence, though, that he’s the same man he was before the attack. On one hand, he’s a lot more appreciative of things. He takes time, as he puts it, to smell the roses.

A T.G.I. Friday’s employee is being credited for saving the life of a traveler at Pittsburgh International Airport.

Brad Dougherty the Saviour

Brad Dougherty was quick to react when a man collapsed on the airside moving walkway.

Dougherty grabbed a nearby defibrillator and helped keep the man alive until paramedics arrived.

“I had an experience like this about a month before. I lost somebody doing CPR. They didn’t make it — at a Sunoco — so I actually got a chance at redemption,” said Dougherty.

The man Dougherty revived was reported to be doing well at a local hospital.

Have you even wondered why, when you’re watching a baseball game and your favourite player strikes out in the top of the ninth inning, you cringe – or alternately, why, when your home team scores a goal or a touchdown, you pump your arm in the air? Or why, when you’re at the movies and the heroine starts weeping, tears well up in your own eyes? Or the feeling of grace and beauty that floods through you as you observe a ballet dancer or listen to a world-class pianist?

When we watch someone do something, whether it’s scoring a penalty kick r playing a perfect arpeggio on a STeinway grand piano, our brains react as if we were actually performing these activities ourselves. In short, it’s as tough seeing and doing are one and the same.

This is due to mirror neurons at work in our brains.

This is why First Aid Corps organise CPR+AED “flash mobs”, not only to educate the public on the importance of CPR and the use of the AED, but also to get all others who have been trained in CPR before to revise in their minds.

Here are some photos that were taken at our first event in Singapore.

Anyone interested to do the same elsewhere?