First Aid Corps

Thursday afternoon, Breaux Bridge’s Tedrick Lewis had an angel watching over him.

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That angel materialized in the form of the Breaux Bridge coaching staff, which launched into lifesaver mode when the freshman football player was found face-down on the sideline.

Lewis had just come off the field during the Tigers’ spring football scrimmage, grabbed a gulp of water, and took a knee to watch his teammates.

Moments later, Lewis was sprawled out on the ground, his face buried in the grass.

Instinct and training immediately took over for Breaux Bridge head coach Paul Broussard and his staff.

“When we turned him over, we knew that something was wrong,” Broussard said. “We have an emergency plan in place and we’ve been practicing it with our school nurses.

“Each coach is responsible for a certain thing. We had just practiced it with our school nurses right around the Easter holidays. Everybody put the plan in place and thank goodness we had that machine.”

Broussard and assistant coach Kevin Bonhomme began CPR, while coach John Muder raced to the gym to get the AED (automated external defibrillator) machine.

Assistant coaches Brent Angelle and Rickey Poulan ushered the remaining players into the gym.

When Muder arrived with the AED machine, he took over the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as Broussard and Bonhomme began to use the defibrillator.

“People have asked me what was going through my mind, and honestly, you don’t think, you just react,” Bonhomme said. “There was no thinking. That’s where the routine and the training just kicks in.”

The coaches were able to revive Lewis, and he was conscious when Acadian Ambulance arrived on the scene moments later.

“We had lost him a couple of times, but by the time (Acadian Ambulance and Air Med) got there, he was conscious again,” Broussard said.

Lewis was air-lifted to the hospital, while the coaches followed in their vehicles. Bonhomme said it wasn’t until that moment that he was able to catch his breath and realize the magnitude of the situation.

“Adrenaline kind of takes over,” Bonhomme said. “Later on, when I was going to the hospital, I started thinking about it again and I got scared. At the time, you just react.

“On the ride to the hospital, I called my parents and my sister just to hear their voice and make sure they were OK.”

Lewis is doing well and could be released from the hospital as early as Tuesday. Thankfully, he doesn’t remember anything.

“I spoke to him Saturday and again (Monday),” Broussard said. “They will put a heart monitor on him. I think they found out what the problem was; it’s some kind of heart condition that went undetected.

“He doesn’t remember anything. At the hospital that night, I was asking him about it, and he still doesn’t remember what happened. He said pretty much the last thing he remembered was coming off the field.”

Broussard said the fact that Breaux Bridge had a plan in place, as well as rehearsed that plan a few times, definitely helped save Lewis’ life.

“I’m glad we had the emergency plan in place and I’m glad our nurses and principals kept on us to practice the plan,” Broussard said. “It was amazing. We didn’t panic. We just went into the plan and did what we were trained to do. A lot of the things, I don’t even remember what happened.

“I’m glad we were trained and I’m glad we were prepared. I’m glad the end result came out like it did. Our school nurses and principals did a good job of preparing us for this type of situation.”

Part of the training was to simulate an incident during practice. It’s one of those things that coaches might do reluctantly, but Broussard says it was definitely worth the time to practice the plan.

“There’s really never a good time to practice it, but I’m glad we did it,” Broussard said.

“We took the whole football team out there one day and did a mock run and put us on a clock and timed us. That was right around the Easter holidays, so it was still fresh in our mind.

“On the way to the hospital, one of the coaches said ‘Thank goodness we just had that mock drill.’ We were prepared and knew exactly what we had to do. Our nurses and principals were persistent in getting us to know what to do and thank goodness for that.”

Family members, police officers, ambulance volunteers and the staff of two hospitals saved a 67-year-old man’s life with CPR, a defibrillator and further treatment Friday after he went into cardiac arrest, Southampton Town police said.

Police received a call from the Mount Misery area of Sag Harbor at 1:41 a.m. Friday reporting that a man was not breathing and turning blue, according to a statement from the police department.

Two town police offers and Sag Harbor Volunteer Ambulance were dispatched to the scene, where they found family members of the victim administering CPR.

Police officers took over the CPR and used an automated external defibrillator on the patient, according to the police statement.

Over the next few minutes, with the assistance of arriving ambulance volunteers, emergency responders delivered three shocks with the AED and continued CPR.

The patient’s pulse returned, and he began breathing on his own, police said.

Ambulance members initiated advanced life support and transported him to Southampton Hospital. “By the time the ambulance left for the hospital, the patient was starting to regain consciousness,” police said.

The patient was further stabilized at Southampton Hospital and then transported to Stony Brook University Medical Center for further cardiac care, though he was conscious and talking.

It was a gloomy day at the golf course. Upper 40s and windy.

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“It kind of looked like it might rain,” said Chris Edmondson, assistant manager of the golf course at Lake of the Woods in Mahomet.

James Brandenburg the Survivor

Only nine players had come through as of 1:45 p.m. April 4. That’s about the time the phone rang.

Dave Sebestik, assistant golf professional, took the call.

“What?” Edmondson heard Sebestik say. Sebestik hung up and looked at Edmondson.

“Somebody’s down on 17. They called 911 and just wanted to let us know,” Sebestik said.

But the two employees sprang into action.

“I said, ‘Well, we got to get out there,’ and I grabbed the AED, not knowing what was going on. I didn’t know if somebody just fell or what,” Edmondson said. He still doesn’t know why he grabbed it, but the automated external defibrillator was his first thought, just in case it was needed.

Sebestik met Edmondson outside the pro shop with a golf cart. When they reached hole 17, Edmondson saw frequent golfer of Lake of the Woods, James “Jim” Brandenburg, 64, of Mahomet, lying on the ground not breathing. No pulse.

Brandenburg’s playing partners, Mike Wattles and Gary Peterson, both of Mahomet, were administering CPR.

“I told them to step away, because we could hook up the AED,” Edmondson said. “When you put it on, it walks you through. It’s kind of foolproof.”

Edmondson and other nonseasonal employees of the Champaign County Forest Preserve District are trained to operate AEDs as well as practice full first aid.

“I opened it up and put the pads on,” Edmondson continued. “It checked all the vitals, and it said, ‘Administer shock.’

“I told everybody to just kind of stand back and pushed the button. (Jim) gave a little jump and a breath, and I felt he had a little pulse going.”

The AED checked Brandenburg’s vitals again, and it said, “No shock required,” which meant his heart was going.

“Right then, the Cornbelt and EMTs showed up, and they took over CPR. The ambulance showed up, and they got him to the hospital,” Edmonson said.

“During the whole time, I really wasn’t thinking at all, I was just doing what needed to be done as far as I thought, and until the ambulance pulled away, that was when it hit me,” he said. “It kind of was all reaction.”

And it seems it was that way for Brandenburg’s playing partners, Wattles and Peterson, too.

Peterson said the group had just teed off and was half way to the green on 17 — a long par 3 — when he heard a thud behind him. When he turned around, Brandenburg was on the ground.

“It was scary as heck,” he said, noting Brandenburg turned a little blue.

The two friends immediately acted, with Wattles calling 911 and Peterson rolling him on his back to start CPR. Peterson said he had no recent training in CPR, but did what he could.

Wattles had taken a voluntary training program in CPR before, but said 911 dispatchers walked them through what to do to resuscitate Brandenburg.

Wattles said Edmondson then showed up with the defibrillator.

“We were quite frightened, of course,” Wattles said. “I’ve been around death before, but they were in the hospital. Just to have somebody on the ground right there in front of you opens your eyes to how quickly you can be gone without necessarily any symptoms. You need to make your peace with God everyday. I have a strong faith. I certainly prayed for Jim and his family.”

Peterson called his wife, Sharon, who picked up Brandenburg’s wife, Patricia, who met the group at the ambulance.

Patricia rode in the front seat of the Arrow Ambulance and directed them to Provena.

All the way to the hospital, she prayed.

“I can’t imagine my life without him,” she said, noting the two met when they were 14 years old in Watseka. They have been married 45 years.

When they got to the hospital, emergency room doctors took him to heart surgery, where they found he had two block arteries and a third almost entirely blocked. He had a triple bypass as a result.

Patricia called both her sons, who both came as fast as they could. Brad Brandenburg lives in Tampa, Fla., and James Brandenburg, who is in the Air Force, lives in Carlisle, Pa.

“That was the longest day of my life,” Patricia said, noting Gary and Sharon Peterson stayed at the hospital with her until 2 a.m.

Brandenburg woke up the next evening in intensive care.

He said he could hear a nurse named Ted urging him to wake up and telling him he had a heart attack.

Brandenburg’s first reaction was, “You got to be kidding me.”

He said he didn’t recall feeling any pain. He didn’t feel jaw pain or leg pain or arm pain.

“I was playing golf,” he said. “I just hit the ball and the other guy hit his ball, and then we started walking toward the 17th green. And that was it.”

But Brandenburg said he doesn’t remember much of the day — only getting dressed that morning and the first hole.

He did not sustain other injuries or brain damage — even though he jokingly said that was in question before anyway.

“It was unbelievable,” he said. “But everybody was involved.”

Right after the event, the Champaign County Forest Preserve District added two more defibrillators.

They now are near the tower at Lake of the Woods, the golf course, Museum of the Grand Prairie, the maintenance shop at Lake of the Woods, and Middlefork and Homer forest preserves.

“All of these people contributed to me being alive today,” Brandenburg said. “But (Edmondson) was No. 1 as far as starting this heart, because it had stopped.”

He hopes others might hear his story and encourage them to purchase defibrillators for their establishments.

“I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for that,” he said.

It was a lazy spring afternoon when the radio crackled to life.

“Difficulty breathing at 331 Wildwood Way.”

Half a mile away, Todd Mehl rushed to his truck. Minutes later, the volunteer firefighter arrived on the scene.

In the bathroom, 18-year-old James Stuart laid, unmoving. Mehl checked his pulse and felt a faint beat.

“Something told me to check it again. The second time I didn’t feel anything,” Mehl said.

The trained Emergency Medical Technician sounded the “full arrest” alert and initiated cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“I knew I had to keep it going until the cavalry arrived,” Mehl said. “In my head, it felt like an eternity. In reality, it was probably two minutes.”

At a family barbecue, Kevin Worley heard Mehl’s call. At the Priceville Fire Department, Worley and Steve Wilson picked up a defibrillator. If needed, the machine, hopefully, could shock Stuart’s heart back to life.

At the house, Worley and Wilson found Mehl leaning over Stuart, pumping his chest. There was still no breath, no pulse, no life. The Brewer High School student who loved basketball, football and trains was turning blue. After each round of CPR, Mehl stopped and waited. Nothing.

With each passing minute the odds for survival faded. According to statistics, only 2 percent of patients in full arrest survive. They needed to get Stuart’s heart beating immediately.

“You can’t think about it. You have to go on instincts,” Wilson said. “But when a child is involved, a little more goes into it. We just had to do what we were trained to do.”

Worley and Wilson unzipped the defibrillator, tore open the pads, placed them on Stuart’s chest and prepared to administer a shock after the sixth round of CPR.

Then everything stopped as Mehl checked for a pulse. There it was, a faint beat. And then, the shallow breathing.

“It was amazing to see his color come back and see him pink up. It was an awesome thing,” said Worley.

“That is exactly what it is, awesome,” Wilson said.

“You can do this for a number of years and never experience that,” said Wilson, who also serves as the department’s lay chaplain.

“There are no words to describe it. The only thing I can relate it to is seeing your children born. There is nothing like it,” Mehl added.

The ambulance arrived minutes later and whisked Stuart to Huntsville Hospital where he was airlifted to Birmingham.

Left behind were Mehl, Worley and Wilson. They repacked their bags, zipped up the defibrillator and went back to their lives, not knowing if Stuart would survive.

“We always want to find out what happens to the patients. The bad thing is we can’t because of HIPPA laws and privacy issues,” Wilson said.

But they needed to know. Mehl returned to the Stuart home several days later and knocked on the door. Nancy Stuart answered. James, she said, had survived.

That was more than a year ago.

“I’m doing great. The doctor says, well, I’m perfect,” said James Stuart.

Sitting with Mehl, Worley and Wilson at the fire station on Bethel Road, Stuart proudly wore a Priceville Firefighter shirt. After all, he is an honorary member.

“I don’t remember anything about that night. The first thing I remember is waking up in Birmingham the next day,” Stuart said.

On April 11, Stuart celebrated his 19th birthday. He is working toward his GED and dreams of becoming a railroad engineer. Nancy Stuart said a heart condition called hypoplastic left heart syndrome — a congenital condition that occurs when parts of the left side of the heart do not develop completely — caused James to have a seizure and his heart to stop beating.

“Together, (the firefighters) worked to save my son’s life. Using only hands-on CPR, they got his heart back beating,” Nancy Stuart said. “The three heroes I met on April 25, 2010 are, thankfully, a part of our family now. James has two birthdays due to these wonderful men.”

They shy away from the term hero. They were just doing what they trained to do.

“We are not heroes,” Mehl said. “Heroes die in the line of duty.”

“I just thank God that we were given the opportunity to use what we knew to help somebody,” Worley said.

But to Nancy Stuart, there is no other word to describe Mehl, Worley and Wilson. They are heroes.

“What these men did was amazing. I will never be able to thank them enough,” she said.

Every few months, the volunteer firefighters meet up with the Stuarts. According to Nancy Stuart, they are all one family now.

“Every time I see him it is amazing. The first time I saw him it brought tears to my eyes,” said Worley.

Mehl, Worley and Wilson represent three of the 40 volunteer firemen who serve Priceville, 24 hours a day, seven days a week. Last year, they responded to more than 800 calls. A majority of calls come in the middle of the night.

While the community sleeps, they are removing trees from the roads, extricating individuals from cars and responding to fires.

“These are amazing men,” said Wilson, who works during the day at International Paper. “They are a group of people who get up in the middle of the night to protect others. I am lucky to be associated with them.”

Worley spends his days at 3M, and Mehl works at Nucor.

They are volunteer firefighters. They do not get paid. They do it to serve the community.

“We are blessed to have this opportunity to give back and serve and do for others,” Wilson said.

A few months after brothers Joel and Jarett Loehr bought Falcon Lanes they spent an extra $1,200 on a luxury item they never used — until Friday, when it may have saved a life.

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Early Friday afternoon a woman, a senior bowler in a league, fell to the floor.

“I was in the office and we heard a crash,” Joel said. ” I rushed down. She was unconscious, eyes open and breathing.”

But that breath amounted to only a few gasps. Loehr, who had first-aid training in a previous job, checked for a heart rate. When he couldn’t find it, he grabbed the automated external defibrillator (AED) used by paramedics to shock the heart back to action.

The Loehrs purchased it a few months after buying the bowling alley five years ago, after realizing the age of many of their best customers.

“It was one of my fears: we wouldn’t be able to do anything if something happened.”

Joel said he applied the paddles. A 30-second analysis by the AED told him he needed to apply a shock.

“It was just like you see in the movies. The body jumped an inch, inch and a half. It analysed and said no (second) shock was needed and continue with CPR.”

Paramedics arrived minutes later. Loehr said they told him the woman was stable, but he does not know her condition.

Besides confirming the decision to purchase an AED, Loehr said it also reminded him to keep up on first aid training.

“I probably need a refresher,” said Loehr, who had intermediate-advanced training at one time. “There are some rusty spots. It will give me and all the staff a wake-up.”