First Aid Corps

Dr. Ross Bailey of Mantorville, a veterinarian with the Carriage House Animal Hospital in Kasson, had been on one of his daily jogs when the rhythm of his heart was interrupted.

He went into cardiac arrest, and Kim Thomas of Mantorville saw him collapse on the road.

As a surgical technologist at Olmsted Medical Center in Rochester, Thomas is required to be certified in CPR. She pulled over, called 911 and performed CPR until Dodge County sheriff’s deputy Scott Prins arrived.

“It felt like forever, those eight minutes between the call to 911 and hearing the sirens,” Thomas recalled Tuesday after receiving an award for her life-saving efforts.

“You don’t stop and make choices. You just do what you’ve been trained to do,” Thomas said. “I just clicked into CPR mode.”

Thomas’ efforts made it possible for Prins to treat Bailey at the scene with the automated external defibrillator in his squad car. It was the first time Prins had used the machine in the field.

After receiving the defibrillator shocks, Bailey regained a pulse and was taken to Saint Marys Hospital by Dodge Center ambulance.

“The whole series of events that weekend brought us all to the same place at the same time,” Thomas said. “I know we were all there for a good reason.”

On Monday afternoon, Aviles, 13, was set to begin a weekly workout at World Gym. After a five-minute warm up, Aviles took a water break.

Edgar Aviles the Survivor

When his trainer, Oscar Carranza, called the young boy to begin the workout session, Aviles stood up and immediately fell to the ground onto his stomach.

“It happened so fast, he didn’t even get to close his water bottle. Edgar was not breathing, there was no pulse and he was starting to turn blue,” Carranza said.

At that point, Jordan Ramirez, a sales rep at the gym who received his CPR certification last Thursday, ran to the boy after Carranza called for his help.

“I didn’t feel a pulse, so I told Oscar we had to conduct CPR,” Ramirez said. “You could tell when Edgar was coming back to life, you could see him come in and out.”

Within three minutes, EMTs arrived on the scene and immediately used a defibrillator that brought the boy back to life.

He was then transported to Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, where doctors stabilized his condition.

The next day, Edgar was transferred to University Medical Center of El Paso, where he was diagnosed with arrhythmic heart failure and an enlarged heart.

Elizabeth Aviles was at the gym during her son’s near-death encounter. She said she last talked to Edgar when he came to ask for a water bottle and went back to his workout. She was at another part of the facility when her son collapsed and did not witness the quick response by the two World Gym employees.

“I really thought I was going to lose my son,” Aviles said. “If it wasn’t for Oscar and Jordan my son wouldn’t be alive.”

Kathy Margiasso, the fitness director at Mount Kisco Athletic Club, and another personal trainer were waiting for their 9 a.m. appointments last week when a member came running toward them.

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“Someone fell off the treadmill,” Margiasso said was the urgent message.

Margiasso’s initial instinct was to grab the first aid kit, thinking it might be a case of scrapes and bruises, but then fellow trainer Val Yasovic told her the person was unconscious.

Kathy Margiasso the Saviour

Turns out a 64-year-old man had suffered a heart attack while working out on the treadmill. Margiasso said she quickly “turned back around,” and got the Automatic External Defibrillator, or AED, and told manager Tom Brady to call 911.

“Immediately what I did was just open the AED and put the pads on his chest, and the AED analyzed immediately and said there was a shock advised,” Margiasso said. “I did one shock and then we started CPR.”

Brady said Margiasso and Yasovic were in sync.

“She and Val worked as a team to save that guy’s life,” said Brady, noting that one trainer was operating the defibrillator and then together they did three cycles of CPR with Margiasso doing compressions and Yasovic the breaths.

Margiasso said the victim’s legs then started to move “and there were signs of life” so she stopped. By this point, police, EMTs and an ambulance had arrived at the 151 Kisco Ave. club

The club would not release the name of the member who was stricken but said he was stabilized at Northern Westchester Hospital in Mount Kisco and then brought to the cardiac unit at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla where he underwent double bypass surgery the following day.

Margiasso said Tuesday she was proud of herself and the staff for remaining calm and grateful that everyone in the gym is trained to do CPR and use the AED. In fact, Margiasso is the one who trains them.

“I’m thrilled that when it comes time to put (to use) the skills that we practice over and over again, that we were able to do it,” she said.

A leak from a propane barbecue grill sparked some trouble in Middle Valley.

The homeowner called 911 and then used a hose to snuff out the flames that spread to his deck. Dallas Bay volunteer firefighters arrived a few minutes later to finish the job.

Once things cooled down the homeowner and firefighters were outside talking about the fire when the homeowner collapsed, falling flat on his face. He stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest.

As Hamilton County paramedics were called to the scene firefighters immediately began CPR and grabbed their automated external defibrillator.

“They pulled the automated external defibrillator and used it on this patient in the first two minutes which actually saved this gentleman’s life,” Amy Maxwell, spokesperson for Hamilton County Emergency Services said.

As the AED literally talked the firefighters through a life-saving process, and shocked the man’s heart, he started breathing again.

“It just so happens it was just a lucky turn of events that Dallas Bay was actually there when this gentleman went down at the time,” Maxwell said.

The victim is recovering at Erlanger Medical Center and we’re told he will have surgery in the next day or so to correct some blockages in his heart that he didn’t even know he had.

While finishing up a report in the basement of the Gilford Police Station On the evening of June 28 Monday, O’Neill was dispatched to the Keith residence for a man who was unresponsive and not breathing.

Arriving at the house, he got the first aid kit along with the automatic electronic defibrillator out of the car’s truck.

Walking inside the house, he came across the adult laying on his back in a screened-in-portch with another person on the phone with 9-1-1.

This man laying on the floor was motionless and was identified as Rowland Keith.

“Just looking at him I did a quick assessment and it was clear I had to put the AED on him,” said O’Neill.

With family being a priority to him in his own life, O’Neill wanted to do all in his power to help Keith, but also help his family.

Deputy Chief Kevin Keenan was also on scene. With time meaning the difference between life and death, O’Neill told Keenan to cut off Keith’s shirt and proceeded to place the defibrillator pads on Keith’s body.

O’Neill said as soon as he turn the unit on, it advised him to shock Keith immediately, something he was not expecting.

“That completely took me off-guard because I’ve put the unit on people before and it assesses the patient for a few seconds first,” said O’Neill. “It told me to shock him again, at which point I told his son to let go of his father’s hand and made sure I was clear and I shocked him.”

After delivering the shock, the system advised O’Neill to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until other emergency personnel arrived.

The Laconia Fire Department was on scene first followed by the Gilford Fire Department which was on another call when this incident occurred. O’Neill said it was the greatest feeling to see a dozen firefighters on scene helping, but even greater was seeing Keith beginning to move and function on his own.

“Little by little he just started to come back to life on his own,” said O’Neill. “By the time they put him on the stretcher to bring him out to the ambulance, he was moving his arms and talking. It was awesome to see it come a complete one-eighty.”

“I’m just thankful for the way it played out and he did come back,” he said. “He doing good now. He was released from the hospital the next day.”

“CPR alone wouldn’t have been able to do what the AED did,” said O’Neill.