First Aid Corps

Drew Brantley, 17, a school soccer and baseball star, was playing basketball with classmates last week when he collapsed and appeared to have a seizure.

Drew Brantley the Survivor

But nurse Brenda Strunk said she quickly realized it was much more severe.

“When we got to him, we were trying to find pulse on him. We couldn’t find a pulse,” she said.

Strunk grabbed an Automated External Defibrillator located outside the school’s gym and used it to bring the boy back from full cardiac arrest.

Brantley spent five days in Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where doctors said he had a heart condition that had gone undetected.

Now he is back home and thanking the people, and the machine, that helped save his life.

“I couldn’t tell you where one of (the AEDs) is in the school, although I guess I will now,” he said. “I’m just so happy that everybody knew how to use it, and everybody got there on time.”

“Only because of that device and the people at school is our son still alive” said Ron Brantley. “Make sure you get them. Even if you don’t have to use them, it’s a security blanket.”

When Dean Lowder, 48, was getting ready to start his shift as a robot operator at ConAgra Foods’ local plant, he never realized his life was going to change.

Conagra Team the Saviours

Talking to friends, getting ready to start a new shift and going through his routine was when the unexpected happened that Monday in late January.

“He just passed out, so the nurses came, did CPR and used a defibrillator,” said Lowder’s mother, Floy Underwood.

“The third shock with the defibrillator brought him back to life. He was taken to Saint Mary’s (Regional Medical Center), then to Little Rock.I was scared to death because you don’t ever know what has happened. It was just hard to think.

“I was driving and one of my sons called and said ‘Dean is in the hospital.’ As I was on the way to the hospital, someone from ConAgra called me and said that I needed to get there because something is wrong with Dean.

Both Underwood and Todd Lowder agreed Lowder wouldn’t have survived if it wasn’t for ConAgra’s emergency response team.

“If they didn’t do what they did, it wouldn’t matter what other doctors could do,” Lowder said. “They had to have something to work with first. I have more respect for it now. I have more respect for them. You don’t think twice about it, a fire hydrant or how close it is to your house until your house catches on fire. I have walked by (defibrillators) every day at work and never thought twice about it. Now it’s different.”

Underwood credits ConAgra for saving her son’s life because otherwise there wouldn’t have been a chance of him making it to the hospital in time.

“The nurses and having the defibrillators in the break room is why he’s alive. It was ConAgra having the right equipment and the right people too,” Underwood said. “It makes you realize how important life really is, and how when you see people, if you love them, tell them you love them.

“ConAgra should get the recognition. Not everyone cares that much about their employees.”

“My biggest thanks is to the people at ConAgra, the nurses, Dean’s coworkers and management,” Todd Lowder said. “They have one hectic job. I wish I could do more (than offer thanks). People do care about each other in big corporations.”

About 8:15 a.m. on 4th February, moments after talking with Homestead High School senior Abishek Chintapalli, biology teacher Bekki Vail heard him fall to the floor.

Abishek Chintapalli the Survivor

She ran to see what had happened and found him unconscious, but making irregular gasps for air, known as agonal breathing.

Two students rushed to the clinic and alerted school nurse Maria Lund, who ran to the room and started giving Chintapalli chest compressions in front of a crowd of students.

Time seemed to slip away as Lund kept pushing, unable to get Chintapalli to begin breathing.

“I could see his color was getting bad,” Lund said.

Nurse Beth Quigley was the second responder to arrive. She worked with Lund, giving Chintapalli mouth-to-mouth to no avail.

Vail called 911, and Lund radioed for an automated external defibrillator.

A custodian heard the call, grabbed the device near the clinic and ran upstairs to give it to Lund.

By that time, Assistant Principal Steve Lake had arrived on the scene. He never had felt so helpless, he said, as he watched Lund put the defibrillator on Chintapalli’s chest.

Chintapalli’s heart wasn’t beating, and the defibrillator gave directions to shock. Lund did so, twice, establishing a heartbeat.

More staff members arrived to help carry Chintapalli down the stairs; others contacted his mother.

By the time an ambulance pulled away, at least 20 Southwest Allen County Schools employees had played some role in the emergency response.

“You were there when Chintapalli needed him, and you did everything in a very timely manner,” Chintapalli’s mother, Lakshmi said. “Abi is alive because of you.”

Chintapalli said he was touched by the support he received in the hospital and was happy to be back in school.

“I lost 8 to 10 pounds when I was in the hospital,” he said. “But I think I gained it all back yesterday. We had lots of parties, lots of food.”

A 50-year-old passenger collapsed in the Sky Harbor Airport’s security checkpoint line Monday morning at 5:35 a.m.

Two witnesses who happened to be nurses performed CPR on the man, and when a Phoenix Police officer got there, the passenger was not breathing.

Officer Brian Warren located an automated external defibrillator and used it to shock the passenger one time.

By that time, Officers Kim Walsh, Tim Essick and Paul Rooks arrived on scene and took turns performing CPR on the passenger.

When firefighters arrived, they transported the patient to the hospital in critical condition.

Two Second Precinct Police Officers helped save the life of a retired New York Police Department officer who was suffering from a heart attack in a Huntington bank this morning.

Officer Anthony Leo responded to a Wachovia branch where employees were administering CPR to Brian Lynch, 49, of Smithtown, at about 9 am.

Officers Leo and David Weymouth utilized an automatic external defibrillator and revived Lynch who was in cardiac arrest.

Lynch, who retired a year ago from the NYPD and now works for Wachovia, was transported to Huntington Hospital by Huntington Community First Aid Squad.

Fortunately for Catskill resident James Brennan of Hudson Avenue, it took less than four minutes for emergency responders to arrive after his collapse.

EMTs Rob, Michael & Cory the Saviours

At 6:10 p.m., Brennan’s wife called 911, reaching Catskill Police Department dispatcher Erika Ruger, and Catskill Police Officer Steven Deitz was dispatched to the residence at 6:12 p.m. and began CPR by 6:14 p.m.

Catskill Ambulance Emergency Medical Technician Cory Birk, who was off-duty and visiting a friend only a block away on High Street, overheard the radio communications on his friend’s police scanner and responded to the scene.

He quickly utilized the Automatic Electronic Defibrillator, which each Catskill Police patrol car equips, and was able to revive Brennan, who is in his 60s, according to EMTs.

“When someone puts their professional responsibilities beyond their own personal needs, it is beyond invaluable when it comes to saving someone’s life,” said Town Supervisor Peter Markou, who commended Birk with the first-ever citation for outstanding performance by a first responder.

Catskill EMT Michael Eisshofer of East Greenbush and EMT-Intermediate Rob Brooks of Purling were also commended by the board for their service in the incident.

Eisshofer and Brooks responded and performed further CPR to stabilize Brennan.

“He was touch and go for a while there,” said Brooks, who noted he became unresponsive during treatment.

“If we weren’t there for another two minutes,” Brooks said, “he wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“A life was saved because of their service,” Markou said of the responders.

“I just did my job,” said Birk.

“They don’t feel that they’ve done anything special,” said Catskill Ambulance Administrator Matthew Leibowitz, “but of course, whenever you save a life it’s special.”

“This is what we do,” said Brooks. “It’s special in that there are not many situations where they are actually able to walk out of the hospital.”

47-year-old Jackie Shashaty suffered a heart attack around 11:30 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 9, collapsed on her bedroom floor, and began to have a seizure.

Shashaty’s boyfriend, Cedar Grove Police Officer Scott Moody, was inside her house, heard the fall, and raced into the bedroom where he discovered Shashaty had no pulse.

Her heart had stopped beating.

Moody performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Shashaty, a mother of two, and called 911.

Moody also called Shashaty’s sister, Marge Quirk, a Jersey City school nurse, who lives just up the road from Shashaty.

Officers and emergency personnel responded to Shashaty’s Rugby Road home in a matter of minutes.

By the time she arrived on the scene, Quirk was watching members of Cedar Grove’s Ambulance and Rescue Squad shock Shashaty’s heart with a defibrillator.

“I knew she was not alive at that moment,” said Quirk.

Shashaty said her heart was shocked a total of six times by the defibrillator before it slowly began to beat and a faint pulse returned.

Cedar Grove Ambulance and Rescue Squad members transported Shashaty to Mountainside Hospital in Montclair.

A few days after having the implantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, Shashaty was released from the hospital. She is now recovering at her home along with the help of her two children.

Although she had a busy schedule on Jan. 9, Shashaty said she has no recollection of anything that occurred before or after the heart attack.

“I didn’t see anything,” said Shashaty after being revived. “I don’t have a recollection of anything.”

When asked if she had a message to the emergency personnel who helped resuscitate her, Shashaty said, “Thank you for saving my life. My kids still have their mom.”

On Jan. 16, David Feinstein was walking out of Southwest Rec Center on the UF campus in Gainesville when he heard cries for help.

Cook, a building construction professor who has done consulting work for Pulte Homes in Volusia County, had suffered a heart attack.

He had been playing racquetball with one of his students, 24-year-old Brando Fetzek, and a couple other friends when he told them he felt winded, needed to take a break, and would catch them on the next game.

“We finished the game in about five minutes, and as I walked out I saw him laying there,” said Fetzek, a Bradenton resident. “I called out for somebody to call an ambulance and that’s when David and his buddy came running over. David started to perform CPR.”

Several other students joined in, calling 911, alerting Southwest Rec staff to the emergency and helping with the CPR.

They set up a nearby AED — automated external defibrillator — which is used to shock a non-beating heart into starting again.

“We put it on him and we shocked him and we got a pulse, but it wasn’t a very strong one,” Feinstein said. “He took a big gasp of air, but then he wasn’t breathing on his own, so we kept doing CPR.”

Paramedics transported Cook to the hospital where he stayed for five days. Since then, he has made a full recovery and has even returned to the classroom.

But it wouldn’t have happened without prompt action by the students. Reached by e-mail, Cook expressed appreciation for the help he received.

“I owe my life to Brando and David and three other students (Joey Murvis, Karina Reyner and Josh Rubin) who administered CPR and AED. I will be forever grateful to them,” Cook wrote.

Meanwhile, Feinstein’s parents, Larry and Candace of Ormond Beach, are understandably proud because for all his good grades and ambition, his latest accomplishment put everything in a new perspective.

“You want your kids to go out and do good. You couldn’t ask for anything better,” his mother said.

Lewis Gooden was visiting friends on Old East Road on Dec. 4.

Karen & David Rodham the Saviours

After visiting and having a cup of tea with Karen and David Rodham, he got up to leave and suddenly collapsed, suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.

Mrs. Rodham said they were all standing together so her husband was able to catch Mr. Gooden before he hit the floor and she immediately called 911. “It was seconds that he could’ve been out the door,” she said.

The 911 operator in Laconia walked the couple through the new CPR format, keeping Mrs. Rodham calm on the phone. The operator had her count compressions out loud while Mr. Rodham actually performed the 600 chest compressions as directed. Then help started to arrive.

“Thank God for Rick, he came walking through the door right at 600,” Mrs. Rodham said. Officer Rick Grima of the Whitefield police used the AED (automated external defibrillator) from his cruiser and was able to successfully shock Mr. Gooden’s heart.

The officer, a former EMT himself, admitted it was the first time he’d ever had to shock anyone. “I guess you did a good job,” Mr. Gooden quipped, laughing as the two men spoke.

Mr. Roy said he doesn’t remember any of the events of Dec. 4, but he’s thankful for everyone who helped.

After being transported to Weeks Medical Center in Whitefield, he was flown to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and now sports an internal defibrillator to regulate his heart.

Mr. Rodham applauded the efforts of both Lancaster and Whitefield EMS in saving his friend. Among the responders were experienced EMTs, teen Explorers and the Fire Chiefs themselves, all of who played a role in helping to keep Mr. Roy alive en route to the hospital.

Lt. Danielle Frye,a fire marshal for Loudoun County, was driving along Edwards Ferry Road near Woodberry Road when she noticed a vehicle driving erratically.

Moore, Kadric & Fyre the Saviours

When the vehicle stopped, Frye noticed the driver, Terry McCaffrey, of Leesburg, was slouched over the wheel unconscious.

Officer Mirza Kadric saw the stopped vehicle and thought it was a traffic accident, so he stopped.

When he realized that 7-year-old Leesburg man McCaffrey was unconscious, Kadric radioed dispatch for assistance and helped Frye pull him onto the road.

The two noticed McCaffrey wasn’t breathing and did not have a pulse, so they began CPR – Kadric giving chest compressions while Frye gave rescue breaths.

Leesburg Police Sgt. T.J. Moore heard the call from the police station and responded with an Automated External Defibrillator.

When Moore arrived, Frye thought about the snow on the ground and placed her coat under McCaffrey so he would be dry while they used the defibrillator on him.

Kadric and Frye placed the wires on McCaffrey’s chest, while Moore operated the machine.

The defibrillator took McCaffrey’s readings and advised that Moore administer a shock, so he did.

McCaffrey’s heart started beating just as an ambulance arrived to take him to Inova Loudoun Hospital.

He is expected to make a full recovery from his heart attack.

Frye, Kadric and Moore said that during the incident, what they had learned in training completely took over.

“It was almost like a thoughtless process,” Moore said.

Frye said that after McCaffrey’s heart started beating, she felt “a sense of awe that it worked.”

“It’s good to see that side of helping somebody,” Kadric said.

“It feels good to save somebody’s life, but it’s what we do,” Moore said, adding that he felt a sense of relief when he heard the ambulance arrive.