First Aid Corps

Six women entered the pool for the women’s 100 yard breaststroke at the Florida Senior Games.

Sylvia Eisele the Survivor

Their ages ranged from 75 to 86.

As two other swimmers who were not competing in the race watched from behind the starting block, their eyes locked on one of the competitors who gracefully swam from wall to wall.

“Look at lane 5,” one of them said. “Such a smooth stroke.”

Indeed, lane 5 was full of grace as Sylvia Eisele — who nearly died during a race two years ago — embarked on a memorable day.

In addition to her aquatic elegance, Eisele did make a really big splash on Saturday at Gandy Pool in Lakeland.

Following a two-year absence from competitive swimming, the 82-year-old from the Cypress Lake section of Fort Myers returned to the water in record-setting fashion.

As her husband, Nicholas, watched from the sidelines, Eisele competed in three races and set Florida Senior Games age group records in every one.

“It’s been a great day for her,” Nicholas proudly stated.

“I enjoy the water. I love the water,” Eisele said. “I should have been a fish, not a human being.”

For the past two years, Eisele was a fish out of water.

Two years ago, swimming and everything else in her life came to a sudden halt. Near the end of a long day at a Canadian national competition in Toronto — close to the couple’s home in Mississauga — Eisele suffered a heart incident during a race.

“Two arm lengths from the wall, I felt a pain in my head and I was gone,” she recalled. “I was sinking.”

“Her heart stopped,” said Nicholas.

After being pulled out of the water, lifeguards quickly went to work. One provided mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while the other grabbed a defibrillator.

“I was dead on the deck,” Eisele said. “They had to get a defibrillator to get my heart going.”

The prompt response saved Eisele’s life.

“We were so lucky that there was such good medical help available,” Nicholas said.

Her recuperation in a hospital lasted nine days.

Her absence from competitive swimming lasted two years.

“It’s been rough on her because she’s been a competitor all her life,” Nicholas said.

Before she arrived in North America more than a half-century ago, Eisele was an elite swimmer in her native Austria.

The competitive juices that flowed back then — be it in swimming, tennis, cycling or downhill skiing — are still present today in the pool.

“I like competition. I’m a very competitive person,” she said.

Eisele has been a fixture in the local swim scene since she and her husband moved to Fort Myers 25 years ago. She is a longtime member of the Swim Florida club program run by Mac Kennedy. Eisele still practices right next to the program’s young swimmers.

“Mac gives me a lane. He treats me very nicely,” she said.

Eisele, who has competed around the globe — from Australia to Brazil to Germany to New Zealand and has held world records in masters swimming — showed no signs of rust as she returned to the lanes for competition on Saturday.

Accompanied by a device that is implanted near her collarbone in order to make sure her heart beats the way it’s supposed to, Eisele set new age group records for the women’s 80-84 division in the 100 yard breastroke (2:02), 100 yard individual medley (2:02) and 50-yard breastroke (:53.50).

“She swims the 50 faster than I can walk it,” said Nicholas, 85.

On this day, the records didn’t carry quite as much significance for Eisele. Simply being back in the pool for competitive races was enough of a reward.

“I like to be active,” she said. “I like to do things to stay healthy, mentally and physically, that’s the key.”

Quick thinking, the availability of an Automatic External Defibrillator machine, and assistance from several community members are being credited for saving the life of a Weed man who collapsed last week at a Siskiyou Land Trust fundraiser.

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The approximately 100 people who showed up at the Mount Shasta Resort for a slideshow about New Zealand last Wednesday got much more than they bargained for when 83 year old Erv Gross had a heart attack and collapsed to the floor.

“Thank God for the doctors, the defibrillator and the prayers surrounding me,” said 83 year old Erv Gross from his home on Monday, where he’s now doing just fine. “I’ll be forever grateful… and I can’t talk much longer or I’ll start to cry.”

When Gross went down in the crowded room, just as he arrived a few minutes before the presentation began, Peter Mt. Shasta, who was standing nearby, thought he’d banged his head.

“I tried to talk to him, but when he didn’t respond I put my hand on his heart and felt there was no beat and that he had stopped breathing,” Mt. Shasta said.

Doctors Jim Parker and Alan Cohn rushed over and immediately began CPR.

Mount Shasta’s Raven Stevens, who was standing directly behind Gross when he fell, immediately called 911.

Several other people with emergency training and cool heads were also present, including Lon Fitton, who took over chest compressions for Parker when he became exhausted, Neil Posson, Carol Winston, and Rick Demarest.

Demarest said Parker looked up at one point to ask if there was a defibrillator in the house, and he and Stevens went to find one.

“I ran to the front desk to ask if they had a defibrillator, and they did,” Stevens said. She quickly ran back upstairs with the device.

The machine had its own verbal instructions on how to get it working and talked the group through all the steps. After it was charged and Parker got the paddles on, they pressed the button.

“He had no pulse. He wasn’t breathing and was turning blue,” Parker said. “This man was very fortunate to get nearly immediate CPR and shortly thereafter the benefit of the defibrillator.”

Parker said after Gross was shocked with the defibrillator, his heart began beating again on its own, but he still wasn’t breathing. A short while later, he began gasping and his color returned.

A few minutes after Gross began breathing, Parker said emergency crews arrived from the Mount Shasta Fire Protection District and Mt. Shasta Ambulance.

He was taken to Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta and then to Mercy Redding.

Cohn said he was glad he could be helpful in such an intense situation.

“I was aware that this was a life and death situation, but at the same time I knew I was doing what I could to help,” he said.

“As a physician, whenever you hear ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’ you have to respond… I’m just glad there were a lot of people there to help,” said Parker.

Both doctors believe the defibrillator saved Gross’s life.

“Two weeks ago, I’d have bet anything I would never have a heart attack,” said Gross, who owns American Stor-n-loc in Weed and has been a Siskiyou County resident since 1979. “I’m an average weight and I eat healthy; I just can’t believe it.”

Parker said he was so impressed with the AED and its detailed instructions, he is looking into purchasing one for his own office. He praised the crowd for its quick thinking and the response of the emergency responders.

Gross will celebrate his 84th birthday next month.

Brad Teale of West Des Moines was in the middle of a basketball game with his usual teammates at Walnut Hills Elementary School on Oct. 19 when he suddenly passed out, or at least that’s all he remembers.

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“I didn’t even have chest pains or shortness of breath,” Teale said. “I don’t remember much.”

Brad Teale (left) the Survivor

Teale didn’t die that night thanks to the efforts of 12 men, who pitched in to save his life. The Urbandale City Council honored those men with lifesaver certificates and pins that say, “I made CPR Count,” during a meeting on Tuesday night.

Teale went into sudden cardiac arrest, which is not the same thing as a heart attack, although a heart attack can cause it. His teammates didn’t care what had happened to him, they just wanted to help their teammate.

“The debate was whether it was a seizure or a heart attack,” said one of Teale’s lifesavers, Charles Greth of Clive. “I didn’t care what it was, I was determined to wake him up.”

Greth was one of a dozen men playing basketball that night that had a role in reviving Teale. A few started CPR, one called 911, some tried to locate his family and another located the defibrillator at the school and used it on Teale.

Greth’s children attend Walnut Hills Elementary, which is why he knew there was an Automated External Defibrillator (AED) somewhere in the building.

“I remember seeing it somewhere in the building, I just had to run to the place I thought it was and grab it,” Greth said.

Sudden cardiac arrest means “the heart stops,” said Fire Chief Jerry Holt. “There’s a disturbance in the electrical activity and the heart’s no longer rhythmically beating.”

The crew of men said the defibrillator had “dummy-proof” instructions on it. They set it up and waited for the machine to check his heart rate. After the machine confirmed he didn’t have a heart rate, it indicated they should stand back and wait for the shock. Teale was resuscitated after a few shocks and ready for the emergency crew when the arrived 10 minutes later.

“These guys deserve all the credit for basically bringing my back to life,” Teale said in front of the council and guests. “The AED said I had no heartbeat, so they literally brought me back to life. A lot of people nowadays are afraid to jump in and do anything but they got right to it.”

Teale had one basketball buddy trained in CPR, Stewart Card of Des Moines who is a physical education teacher. Overall, he had a group of concerned friends determined to save his life.

“I wouldn’t have anyone to guard,” said Card of why he performed CPR to save his friend’s life.

The group has been playing basketball together for nearly 20 years in a casual game. Troy Bothwell of West Des Moines rents the gym each year to play with his usual group of friends.

“When we have these cases we like to spotlight them,” said Holt. “Especially since it’s few and far between that outcome in these kinds of cases are so good.”

He praised the men for taking action instead of merely calling 911, which might have been too late for Teale.

Allan Robertson would almost certainly be dead today had he’d suffered his sudden cardiac arrest somewhere else.

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The 57-year-old St. Albert father of three collapsed at a pickup soccer game Nov. 14 in the Edmonton Soccer Centre South. His heart stopped, cutting off the blood’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to his brain. At a time when his risk of brain damage and death climbed by the second, there was an automated external defibrillator (AED) nearby and one of Robertson’s teammates was an off-duty emergency medical technician who knew how to use it.

“I remember warming up and joking with one of my buddies, ‘Gee, look at us. We’re the oldest two here,’ ” Robertson said Friday at a news conference on the field where it happened.

“The next thing I know, I wake up in the hospital.”

Matt Austin, 37, was in net at the other end of the indoor field when he saw Robertson lying face-down on the ground.

“Since I didn’t see the play, I guess I assumed initially it was a head injury,” said the Edmonton man, who has been an EMT for three years and works in Camrose.

Matt Austin the Saviour and Allan Robertson the Survivor

Austin quickly realized Robertson wasn’t breathing. He started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and told teammates to call 911 and get the defibrillator the soccer centre keeps near the front door.

“I attached it right away and gave him his first shock after it advised me to do that,” Austin said. “I didn’t feel any pulse or breathing or anything like that again, so I started compressions, did a couple rounds of that, and he took two breaths and his eyes opened for a second.”

After two more rounds of CPR, Robertson gasped for air and opened his eyes. “Within 30 seconds of that, he was actually trying to get off the turf here. He was trying to get up. I said, ‘No, Al, you’ve got to stay down. Stay where you’re at. The ambulance is on its way.’ ”

Approximately four minutes passed between the time Robertson collapsed and when Austin revived him and he tried to get up. The ambulance arrived a few minutes after that, Austin said.

“The brain doesn’t go very long without oxygen. Three to five minutes, they say, is the average, so without early intervention with either CPR or AED or, ideally, both, the possibility of recovery is a lot less.”

Austin said his training took over during the dramatic events. “CPR, I’ve done many times but I’ve never had positive results out of it. By the time an ambulance gets there, if CPR hasn’t been initiated, we’re outside that three- to five-minute window just about always. If CPR hadn’t been started by the so-called bystander, the results would have been a lot worse.”

Robertson was taken to the Grey Nuns Hospital where he had surgery to implant a defibrillator that keeps his heart pumping properly.

Doctors told him the cardiac arrest was caused by a heart abnormality called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which Robertson might have inherited. Robertson doesn’t know yet if he’ll be able to play soccer again, something he’s done twice a week for the past 20 years.

He had no indication of heart trouble before the cardiac arrest.

“I’m just so thankful to be here with everyone and I’m so thankful to Matt,” Robertson said. “Fortunately, Matt was here that day.”

Roberson is convinced he would have died had his cardiac arrest happened during another soccer game he plays every week.

“I play soccer with another group as well, on Friday night, and if this had happened at that venue, they don’t have a defibrillator there. I asked the guys after I visited there, ‘Does anybody know CPR?’ and of the guys that were there, not one knew CPR.”

Robertson’s wife, Karen, said her husband had “a real guardian angel with him that day.” The incident has helped the Robertsons focus on what’s really important in life, such as friends and family, she said.

Austin said he is grateful he could make such a difference to the lives of so many people who love Robertson, including Robertson’s wife and three adult kids.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” Austin said. “It’s an incredible feeling. It’s the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

Teacher Sean King had just popped into the gym to grab a practice defibrillator for the class he was teaching on first aid at Silverthorn Collegiate when he spotted teacher Sharon McConnell cradling a Grade 12 basketball player whose heart had abruptly stopped.

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Suddenly, while his Grade 9 students practiced CPR on “dummies” in the gym next door, King joined McConnell in a life-or-death first-aid drill. In the precious minutes that followed, they used a real defibrillator and CPR to restore the teen’s pulse before emergency crews arrived.

Today the 17-year-old is recovering, although he does not want his name made public.

“The timing was ironic, because I had just been telling my students how important it is to know CPR, especially with the holidays coming up when they visit with elderly relatives,” King said.

McConnell knows first aid from her days as a lifeguard, and began delivering CPR and mouth-to-mouth as shocked students watched. She had been teaching at the Etobicoke school less than two weeks, yet ironically, one of the first classes she had taught was in CPR.

“It’s amazing because the defibrillator tells you exactly what to do, including what rhythm to use when you compress the chest and when to give air,” McConnell said.

Toronto’s Emergency Medical Services has nominated both teachers as well as hall monitor Linda Armstrong and vice-principal Tim Brethour for EMS Citizens’ awards for quick thinking in fetching the defibrillator, calling 911 and delaying the bell between classes so emergency crews could wheel out the stretcher without having to battle crowds.

“In cardiac arrest, seconds count,” noted EMS acting superintendent Shawn Murphy in a letter of praise to school officials. “Had it not been for the rapid and skilled actions of the staff, the outcome would not have been as positive.”