First Aid Corps

When Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone and Officer Al Patterson found custodian Neal Augustyn on the ground without a pulse, they feared the worst.

“As I was doing CPR, I yelled to Officer Patterson to go get the defibrillator and continued the CPR while Officer Patterson put together the pads to administer the shock,” said Giaccone.

“When I got there I couldn’t find a pulse either, then we hooked him up and the machine saved him,” said Patterson.

“After administering the shock, he started to blink his eyelids, he started to have shallow breathing,” said Giaccone.

The chief reported that Augustyn is doing well now and is at Dartmouth Hitchcock Medical Center for tests. He said the department could not be more thankful for the defibrillators that its had since 2001, thanks to a donation from the Hanover Rotary club and the Lane and Elizabeth C Dwinell charitable trust.

“You understand the importance of these, but actually seeing one work effectively and seeing the positive results we have in this case… It’s just amazing,” said Patterson.

It happened March 23rd, during the first class of the day.

Gym teacher Ken Haines said, “The class was doing a mile timed run. He was up toward the front and he was running strong, completed one lap, he was running around and right in this area right here, I saw him collapse down on all fours, seconds later he was just totally unresponsive.”

He was talking about seventh grader Travis Arnold. He radioed nursing assistant Tressa Palmer immediately, and sent students to get help.

“Two girls from the middle school came running and said that they needed me on the track, that a student was down,” said Palmer.

Two other staff members got the school’s defibrillator, or A.E.D. as she ran to the track. “I went over to Mr. Haines, he told me to try and see if I could find a pulse. I could not, Travis was still unconscious,” said Palmer.

Haines said, “She got the AED got right out here, I continued CPR while she hooked him up to the AED and shocked him and she started chest compressions and I was doing the breaths.”

His father, David Arnold remembers the call from the school secretary. “‘The word defibrillator was used’, and I said you only use a defibrillator on someone’s whose heart stopped. And she said Mr. Arnold you need to get to the hospital right now.”

What happened to the him was later called a sudden death episode. His parents say if the stars we not aligned that day, it all would be different. It seems everyone was in the right place at the right time.

A month later, Travis was back to school, and now, he’s just about back to doing all the things he used to do. “Yeah, 99 percent,” said Travis. He’s a man of few words, and thanks his favorite teacher. Dad is thankful he’s here to do it. “Like that day, I was just thankful I got to hug my son again.”

As the staff members and EMTs were honored, the gym teacher that saved his life said, “Travis, thanks for pulling through buddy, I appreciate that, and so does everyone else here”

Ironically, that gym teacher Ken Haines, collapsed in high school during a soccer game, was taken to the same hospital, and saved by a defibrillator.

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A man collapsed and went into cardiac arrest Saturday at the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, but by good luck and determined effort he was revived, according to authorities and a witness.

“It was very unusual,” said Sgt. David Schlosser, a spokesman for the U.S. Park Police.

It was an “amazing event,” said James Tansey, a prosecutor in Union County, N.J. Tansey was one of four bystanders who aided the man when he collapsed about 12:10 p.m.

“The guy was gone,” said Tansey. “No heartbeat, no pulse” and not breathing, he said. But out of the hundreds of visitors at the memorial, Tansey said, two paramedics and a doctor joined in trying to help the man.

According to Tansey, the doctor performed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Schlosser said CPR was done for about four minutes before National Park Service rangers arrived with an automated external defibrillator, which restarted the man’s heart.

Although the odds of finding someone willing and able to perform CPR in such a situation are “not high,” Schlosser said, the man was “apparently relatively stable” when taken to a hospital.

Francis Howell Middle School’s seventh-grader Austin Redd, 13, collapsed to the floor at the start of class and went into cardiac arrest about 12:45 p.m., officials said.

St. Charles County Deputy Ron Neupert, 50, the school’s resource officer, raced to the gym and found Austin unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse. Neupert started CPR and radioed for an ambulance.

The school’s nurse, Lynne Finnerty, shocked Austin’s heart once with the school’s automatic external defibrillator.

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Shortly after, Austin regained consciousness.

“It seemed like forever, but within a few seconds, he began to breathe on his own and you could see he was coming around,” Neupert said.

Austin is expected to recover.

Marty Limpert, a spokesman for the St. Charles County Ambulance District, said the incident illustrates the need for AEDs in schools and staff trained in life-saving procedures.

“There’s no doubt that they saved his life,” Limpert said.

“It’s awesome,” Neupert said of Austin’s recovery. “These kids are my kids, and I care about every single one of them.”

Francis Howell Middle School Principal Amy Johnston said that Thursday was the first time the school has used its AED since it was installed about eight years ago.

And “hopefully the last,” she said.