First Aid Corps

Yuman Brittany Ebersole was working out Wednesday at Club Yuma Fitness Center when a fellow gym member’s heart stopped.

“He was playing racquetball, and he just collapsed,” said Ebersole.

Another gym member witnessed the man collapse and rushed for help and got Ebersole, who is a paramedic with Rural/Metro in Yuma.

Ebersole and others, including club owner and director Nancy Patterson, helped give the 71 year-old man care Wednesday — and the AED helped save the man’s life.

After receiving care, the man was walking and talking before paramedics took him to Yuma Regional Medical Center, where he is currently in stable condition.

The middle-aged St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield club member was watching his son play an U21 hurling championship clash with east Clare side Clonlara at Wolfe Tones GAA club in Shannon when he collapsed unexpectedly.

Two nurses and several other bystanders quickly ran to the man’s aid. One nurse determined that the man had suffered a cardiac arrest and sent another person to the clubhouse to raise the alarm and find a defibrillator.

The nurses, one from each club, promptly began to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and used the defibrillator to revive the man. Soon afterwards, ambulance paramedics arrived at the scene and began treating the patient.

St Joseph’s club secretary Mr Dan O’Connor said: “We are very grateful that there were so many people there to help but we have to compliment the Wolfe Tones club for having such a vital piece of lifesaving equipment when it was needed. Having a defibrillator in a club, as we have ourselves, is absolutely essential and every club in the country should have one.”

The Wolfe Tones club was presented with their defibrillator almost two years ago after money was raised by the students of the nearby St Conaire’s primary school.

Groundsman Mike Kelly, one of those trained to used the defibrillator, said: “I was down at the dressing room end working on the scoreboard when someone came running up looking for the defibrillator. Ours is strategically located so that it can be quickly accessed from the bar area, the dressing rooms or any part of the club. I grabbed it and handed it over and two nurses carried out CPR on the man. It definitely saved that man’s life.”

I shouldn’t have worn so many clothes.

That’s what Tom Tharp was thinking Sunday as he re-entered The Oklahoman’s Edmond distribution center, 3700 S Kelly Ave.

Moments before, he’d partially filled his car with folded newspapers for his delivery route.

He came back inside to get more, but he was hot and nauseated, bundled up too warmly.

“I’m feeling lightheaded,” Tharp remarked, then realized he was falling to his knees.

“That was the last I knew until I woke up in the ambulance,” he said.

Tharp, 57, had suffered a heart attack.

Recovering Monday at the Oklahoma Heart Hospital, Tharp — a retired Oklahoma City police officer delivering papers as an independent contractor — credited his survival to three colleagues.

Sunday, Jonathan Powell, 24, and Melody Mahon, 19, were in the office at the distribution center, where route drivers fold and collect newspapers, when they heard someone had fainted. They saw Tracey Beamer on the floor near a sorting table, taking Tharp’s pulse.

“He’s stopped breathing,” Beamer said. “Does anyone know CPR?”

They didn’t. Not really. Powell had learned about it in high school and Boy Scouts but wasn’t certified, and Mahon hadn’t had any formal training, just bits and pieces she’d learned without really trying. But they rushed to help.

Powell began mouth-to-mouth and chest compressions. Beamer continued to monitor Tharp’s pulse, and Mahon tipped Tharp’s head back, keeping his airway open.

“After a few minutes, his color started coming back, and he was getting air,” Mahon said Monday. “His eyes were darting back and forth at people, but we knew he wasn’t conscious of what was going on.”

Powell said he continued CPR until police arrived. Firefighters and paramedics followed a few minutes later, and Tharp’s heart resumed beating on its own after he was zapped with a defibrillator.

“The doctor told me this morning that … if he hadn’t shocked him with those paddles, he would’ve died,” said Tharp’s wife, Cindy. “The people who worked on him with the CPR kept him alive.”

Powell said he is happy Tharp survived but is uncomfortable taking any credit.

“The real heroes are the policemen, the firefighters and the paramedics who do this every day,” he said.

Randy Poel, a sergeant with the Grand Haven Department of Public Safety, went into cardiac arrest and collapsed while playing hockey at Lakeshore Sports Centre in Fruitport Township on Feb. 21.

Randy Poel the Survivor

Capt. Nathan Morgan of the Muskegon Township Fire Department used the arena’s AED to shock Poel’s heart back to life.

Poel than was taken to a hospital. He has since recovered.

“If it wasn’t for the AED and Nate Morgan, the doctors said that 100 percent beyond a doubt my husband would’ve died,” Lisa Poel said.

“I don’t want anyone to have to go through losing a family member over something that inexpensive,” Lisa said.

Lakeshore Sports Centre Manager Jason Goodell said the arena has had an AED on site for almost four years. It was donated by Scott Wilbur, a customer who thought the business ought to have one.

“He’s received a lot of ‘thank yous’ over the past few weeks,” said Goodell, who wasn’t at the arena when Poel collapsed.

“When I got the call from my assistant, the first thing I asked was, ‘Did you guys use the defibrillator?’?” he said.

Lisa Poel is grateful her husband was playing hockey with firefighters and police officers, all of whom had been trained in the use of AEDs.

Quick thinking and an external defibrillator helped save the life of a Gates-Chili Middle School student.

Michael Candileri & Julie Savage the Saviours

Years of training paid off for Gates-Chili coach Michael Candileri and athletic trainer Julie Savage. The defibrillator couldn’t have been in a better location, just steps from where the stricken girl fell.

Candileri said, “You know, you’re just calming yourself and keeping yourself under control, making sure you’re doing everything correctly. The only thought in your mind is to save this girl.”

Savage used the defibrillator to give eighth grader Olivia Fish the initial shock. “The AED analyzed her again and said continue CPR — all good signs that she didn’t need to be shocked again.”

“You know, for a split second, you thought about what you were doing and then I stopped thinking and I said I just have to do and I can’t think,” Candileri said.

Paramedics took over when they arrived but the coach said, that’s when he thought about what ultimately could have happened because when the outcome was still uncertain when the girl was taken to the hospital.

But everything went right that day. The shock Savage delivered and the CPR saved the girl’s life.

Both the coach and the athletic trainer have had a chance to see the girl and they said just seeing and talking with her — that’s been the most gratifying thing.

She is still in the hospital but is expected to go home soon. The school district said her family has expressed its gratitude for all that’s been done.