First Aid Corps

A Canton Police officer saved a man who was having a heart attack on York Street Jan. 25.

Robert Zepf Jr., who answered the call, used a defibrillator to stabilize Alphonso Nelson, 125 York St., according to Police Chief Berkowitz.

Paramedics Steve Driscoll and Robert Collins arrived shortly and took over care, administering appropriate drugs.

Due to the generosity of the Selectmen and others, there are AEDs – defibrillators – in every [police] vehicle, Berkowitz said.

“This was a great piece of partnering between public service agencies – the police and fire departments,” Berkowitz said at Tuesday’s Selectmen meeting. “This goes to the heart of what public safety is all about.”

“Zepf provided a key first link in survival, but without the extra assistance from paramedics Driscoll and Collins, the outcome may have been different,” said Selectman Chair Victor Del Vecchio, reading a letter of commendation.

Zepf’s father is a decorated state trooper, Berkowitz said.

“Lt. Zeph did a good job of passing on his police genes,” he said.

Staff at a south Edmonton restuarant are being praised for some quick thinking that recently saved a customer’s life.

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Randy Reimer was having dinner at Boston Pizza in South Common two weeks ago when he suffered from a heart attack.

Darlene Zuk the Saviour

“First bite, felt very tired, sat back in the chair thinking ‘Something’s wrong,’” Reimer said.

That’s all he remembers before waking up on the floor after Boston Pizza staff sprung into action to help him.

Manager Darlene Zuk called 911 and got another employee to grab a defibrillator while nurses at a nearby table performed CPR on Reimer, who at that time had fallen off his chair to the ground.

“We were very lucky, I truly believe that nurses are angels, and we had three angels in our restaurant that night that jumped up,” Zuk said.

The defibrillator was needed, and emergency crews later said that it had saved Reimer’s life.

“I worked in the fire services for over 20 years with Toronto fire services and I’ve saved people with defibrillators but when you hear of this it makes your hair on your arms stand up, its a wonderful thing,” said John Collie with Rescue 7.

Reimer was also on hand to give his thanks, overwhelmed over the heroics from staff and the nearby nurses who had all helped save his life.

“It’s not a lot you can really put into words.”

“I was really proud of my team and everyone did what they had to do in order to help someone who really needed our help at that moment,” Zuk said.

“That was a pretty great day to write in that in the manager’s log… What did you do today? Oh, we were busy and we saved a life.”

Two weeks after suffering a heart attack on a basketball court, a local high school referee is thanking those who saved his life.

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“Well, first, I was a very lucky man to have those volunteers to come out of the stands who were trained,” said referee Craig Evans.

Evans said he remembers the heart attack coming on quickly while he was officiating a game at Raymond High School.

“I made a violation call, and the ball was put back into play, and we’re going back up court, and after I came over midcourt, everybody started getting very blurry, and that’s the last I remember,” he said.

When he collapsed during the fourth quarter of the junior varsity girls basketball game, two nurses and an EMT who were in the crowd, along with a sports trainer, went to his aid.

Doctors said those four were critical to helping save Evans’ life. They started CPR and used an automated external defibrillator that the school had on hand. Paramedics then took it from there.

“They gave him medicines that patients don’t always get,” said Dennis Mechem of Exeter Hospital. “They gave him heparin, which stops clotting of his blocked artery and did it immediately in the back of the ambulance, 20 minutes before he got to the hospital.”

Seventy-two minutes after Evans was in an ambulance, doctors had reopened his blocked artery.

“Just the outpouring of support, the best wishes that I have and the feeling that there’s so many wonderful people who are giving and caring for others has just been tremendous for me,” he said.

A father of two, Evans gets emotional thinking of his rescuers, including one he has been able to thank over the phone.

“I don’t know if I have a friend for life, but I have a hero, one of my heroes,” he said.

Janyne Durrant-Pratt, who collapsed as she went to pick up her eight-year-old daughter Lucie, described teacher David Board as one of her heroes – and both of them said what happened highlights the importance of having defibrillators in public places and of people learning basic lifesaving skills.

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Her family – which also includes her husband Martin and their eldest daughter Sophie, 14 – live next door to Frettenham Primary Partnership School, and on November 10 last year before she could reach the school gates Mrs Durrant-Pratt suffered a cardiac arrest.

Janyne Durrant-Pratt the Survivor

Everyone rallied around to help her. Parent Bill Sainsbury-Logan started CPR before Mr Board took over and in the vital minutes before an ambulance arrived used the school’s defibrillator to shock Mrs Durrant-Pratt, 39, and help her heart’s rhythm return to normal. Mrs Durrant-Pratt spent three weeks in the Norfolk and Norwich University Hospital and is still recovering. She is deeply grateful to Mr Board and everybody who helped her.

She said: “I am very thankful to each and every person who was there. If it had not been for them and the school’s defibrillator who knows what would have happened.

“David has always been on a pedestal as far as being a teacher goes because he has a fantastic ability with the children. What he did on November 10 proved to me that he really is a hero. David will always be someone that is very special to me. I cannot thank him enough for what he did for me.”

Mr Board said: “I am just an ordinary person who has had the correct training so if I can do it other people can too.

“All schools should have defibrillators because they could mean the difference between life and death.”

He stressed lots of people helped after Mrs Durrant-Pratt collapsed.

A man who suffered a heart attack while trying to scare off two pit bull dogs attacking his horse met Friday afternoon with two Mint Hill police officers who may have saved his life.

The officers had responded to a call Tuesday on Dan Hood Road about two dogs on the loose. They saw Bill Williamson lying on the ground, pulled a portable defibrillator from the trunk of one patrol car and revived Williamson.

Police said the pit bulls had also attacked Williamson’s horse, Joker, 10 days earlier. The horse was in a fenced pasture both tomes, police said.

The dogs involved in these two attacks are being held at Charlotte-Mecklenburg Animal Control.

The horse was not seriously hurt in the second attack but Williamson almost died. He said he had open heart surgery 10 months ago.

Williamson met with Officer Keith Mickovic and Sgt. Dan Forster on Friday at his home.

“Obviously I’ve never been dead before and had to thank anyone for saving my life,” Williamson said. “It was sort of a strange meeting, but I was glad I was able to do it.”

It was Joker that sustained the worse injuries in the first encounter with the dogs.

“They had her by the throat, ripped a big hunk out of her nose,” Williamson said.

When Williamson saw the dogs in his back yard again this week, he and his two sons went outside with their guns and started shooting to scare them off.

“The excitement is what caused my heart to stop,” Williamson said.

The two officers hooked him up to a small red defibrillator and restarted his heart.

“I don’t know if it’s sunk in,” said Forster. “I mean we realize what we did and that it’s part of our training.”