First Aid Corps

You never know when the big moments will arrive, and so it was that veteran umpire Jim Joyce made his biggest call of the season … roughly 90 minutes before the Marlins-Diamondbacks game started in Arizona on Monday night.

Jim Joyce the Saviour

Joyce administered CPR to a Diamondbacks’ game-day employee named Jayne Powers in a tunnel leading to the umpires’ dressing room minutes on his way into the ballpark Monday, saving her life in a moment nobody who was in the vicinity at Chase Field will soon forget.

Talk about making the right call in a split-second.

“It was non-normal,” Joyce told CBSSports.com Tuesday afternoon. “I don’t know what word to put on it.

“It’s obviously never happened to me before.”

“We’re thrilled that she’s doing well today,” Russ Amaral, vice-president for Chase Field operations and facilities management, said. “And we’re grateful to those who were there to help.”

Powers, a beloved, original employee dating back to the franchise’s inception, has worked in concessions for the Diamondbacks since March 1, 1998. She remains in the hospital and hopes to be released by week’s end, according to the Diamondbacks.

Joyce, 56, and the other umpires in his crew — Lance Barrett, Jim Reynolds and James Hoye — had just arrived at Chase Field and were headed to their dressing room when they saw a woman down in the midst of having a seizure. Noting that, Joyce, who learned CPR when he was in high school, made sure that the woman’s head was protected. But shortly afterward, her body relaxed and Joyce knew something was wrong.

“I’ve had to use CPR before,” Joyce said, though not in many years. “This is something everybody should know. Everybody should know what to do in a circumstance like that.

“It’s not a hard thing. You don’t need a degree. It’s very simple, and very easy.”

Paramedics arrived while Joyce was administering CPR, but even after an initial shock from a defibrillator, Powers did not come out of it. So Joyce continued administering CPR while the paramedics did another round with the defibrillator.

Finally, Powers began breathing again. Someone told Joyce later Monday night that she went out again in the ambulance and that paramedics again used the defibrillator. But by later that night, when he came back into the umpires’ room following the game, Joyce’s understanding was that Powers’ condition in the hospital was stable.

“I’m going to find out more, hopefully she’s doing OK,” said Joyce, who was waiting for an update Tuesday.

Dr Alan Heyes, a 63-year-old semi-retired civil servant of Tonbridge Road, suffered a cardiac arrest when he was running in his own street on May 17.

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He collapsed just outside the main gate to investment company Fidelity’s offices, where a cleaner saw him fall and alerted staff.

Security supervisor Jason Hurd rushed to Dr Heyes, armed with first aid kit and defibrillator.

Dr Alan Heyes the Survivor

But when he got there, a nurse from Tunbridge Wells Hospital who happened to be driving past, had already started giving CPR.

“She explained that the casualty was unconscious and not breathing,” Mr Hurd said.

He continued the compressions while she gave rescue breaths. But Dr Heyes was still not responding. The defibrillator was connected up and he was given an electric shock.

Both Mr Hurd and the nurse put the patient into the recovery position until paramedics and Kent Air Ambulance arrived to take him to Medway Maritime Hospital.

This week, a recovering Dr Heyes said: “All I remember is I went out for a seven-mile run up to Mill Lane past Ightham Mote, made it back, going past the bus stop, then I woke up in Medway hospital.

“I was out in the open, I could have collapsed anywhere but I happened to collapse where they had a defibrillator. I was very fortunate.

“Unfortunately if someone does have a heart attack, not all offices have defibrillators. This happens more than you think.

“If it wasn’t there, it’s most likely I wouldn’t have survived.”

Dr Heyes, who had to undergo heart bypass surgery, has since reunited with the staff who saved his life to say thank you.

He is also urging offices to follow Fidelity’s example and make sure they have defibrillators on site in case of similar emergencies.

Dr Heyes said: “I consider myself to be an extremely lucky chap as everything that you would want to be in place after a cardiac arrest was available.”

Mr Hurd added: “One of the paramedics dealing with the incident told me that if we had not acted as we did and had an AED (automated external defibrillator) to hand, the outcome for this patient would have been very different.”

Nelson Wu of Mission Viejo has a very good reason to encourage the placement and use of portable defibrillators: he is alive because the device was in the right place and he was with the right people who knew how to use it.

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Wu died twice last Father’s Day after playing league basketball at the Bolsa Grande High School gym.

“Right after I passed out, that’s when I flat-lined,” Wu said, adding that this meant he was essentially dead.

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Wu had felt a little winded when he sat down on the basketball court and glanced over at a teammate before everything went dark.

Although he was tall and physically fit, the 37-year-old father suffered a massive heart attack due to high cholesterol and nearly 100 percent artery blockage.

“We all sat stunned, you know, what happened?” said teammate Norm Nakawaki, one of three teammates who sprang into action.

They grabbed the portable defibrillator, attached it to Nelson Wu’s chest and went to work.

“At that point, we knew he didn’t have a heartbeat anymore,” Nakawaki said.

Doctors later said the quick thinking of Nakawaki, Jodi Matsumoto and Jordan Hamamoto saved Nelson’s life, but the drama was not yet over.

They had revived him by the time paramedics arrived at the gym, but then he “died” again in the ambulance and was again brought back to life.

Doctors installed a stent to clear Nelson’s arteries and put him on blood thinners.

Now, Nelson Wu said he’s thankful to be with his family and very happy to have made new friends.

“It’s difficult to put into words,” he said. “What to say to somebody who saves you and gives you a second chance at life?”

“I was just happy that Nelson’s alive, healthy and back with his daughter,” Nakawaki said.

Nelson said he plans to return to the basketball court as soon as doctors give him the OK.

Rick Rawson, 69, has been a runner for nearly 40 years, joining organised social runs held by Athletics Nelson and Waimea Harriers. In his heyday, he was running anything up to 80 to 100 kilometres a week.

Rick Rawson the Survivor

He was fitted with a pacemaker in 1991 to assist a small heart defect detected during a medical examination when he applied for his taxi driver’s licence. Lately, he’s been doing more cycling to stay fit.

On July 18, he joined a group that included Kimble on a regular Wednesday night social run from the Ocean Lodge in Tahunanui. The course finished five kilometres later, outside St Stephen’s.

Rawson has no memory of anything after getting his hair cut that morning, but the story goes that he was standing in the queue at the end of the race, waiting to sign in. Seconds after he stopped, so did his heart.

Kimble, who had finished the run earlier and was already relaxing at the bar, was at his father’s side within seconds of being told he had collapsed.

“I went so fast I didn’t even look to check if there were any cars. I just sprinted across the road.”

He found his father slumped on the ground, with two people checking to see if he was breathing.

The Goldpine manager, whose workplace first aid training included learning CPR, immediately swung into action.

“I pretty much assessed the situation – he was on his side and didn’t have a pulse, and I couldn’t get his mouth open. I just threw him on his back and started pumping his chest.”

Leach then drove past.

“I saw a crowd outside the church and thought that was weird,” he said. “I did a U-turn, and it was then I heard the job called on the radio.”

Leach, who was driving a work car and had all the “tools” with him, grabbed a defibrillator and administered the first of three electric shocks.

Anaesthetist registrar James Tucker, who was also on his way home and stopped to help, put in an airway. An ambulance arrived soon afterwards.

Leach said it was the third shock that brought Mr Rawson back to life.

“He was dead,” he said when asked how ill Mr Rawson was.

“We can save dead people, but without early CPR and defibrillation, the recovery drops exponentially every minute.”

St John says survival from cardiac arrest depends on a number of factors prior to an ambulance arriving, including a bystander performing CPR and the early use of a defibrillator. This increases the chance of a person surviving a cardiac arrest from about 7 to 30 per cent.

“There were people there with knowledge and who were doing CPR well. He got lucky,” Leach said.

Rawson was taken by ambulance to Nelson Hospital’s emergency department.

His wife Sue, who had gone to play bridge as a break from planning the couple’s 50th wedding anniversary, had been taken immediately to where her husband lay in Tahunanui.

Sue Rawson arrived to see electric shocks being administered to her husband’s heart.

Rawson arrived at hospital in a critical condition, and was placed in intensive care once he was stabilised. He was “frozen down” over the next 24 hours. His son and wife never left his side.

“We sat for 50 hours waiting,” Mrs Rawson said. Kimble did not sleep from that Wednesday night until late on Friday night.

“We were told he might not come through, or that he would be brain-damaged.”

Leach said Nelson Hospital, as a secondary hospital, was lucky to have such a “fantastic” cardiology team.

“Without all the pieces of the puzzle coming into line, whatever we do is null and void.”

Rawson was flown to Christchurch for surgery on Thursday last week. He now has a new pacemaker with a defibrillator, and four stents in the arteries of his heart.

“I’m very lucky, and unfortunately I can’t tell you about any near-death experience. I don’t know what happened – it all seems surreal.”

He is now managing some light daily exercise, and said he could not say enough about the staff at Nelson and Christchurch hospitals.

Kimble is deeply grateful to all the people who helped, including his friends and Leach. “You couldn’t have asked for a better person to turn up.”

Anna Henson, an employee of Charter Fitness of Bloomington, saved the life of a club member after he went into cardiac arrest on July 8, 2012.

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The club member had been sitting on a bench in the club when he passed out and fell to the floor.

Henson took immediate action.

She called 911, retrieved the club’s defibrillator and began CPR keeping the member alive until paramedics arrived.

The member later recovered at the hospital.

“We are trained at Charter Fitness to respond to emergencies. I am glad that I could help and that he is OK,” said Anna Henson.

In a statement from Bloomington Fire Department, Captain Brad McCollum wrote, “The patient’s survival from this event was due in large part to the quick action of your employee (Anna Henson).”

“We take the health and well-being of Charter Fitness’ members very seriously and are very proud of Anna Henson’s life-saving efforts,” said Dan Collins, Director of Sales, Charter Fitness. Every club is equipped with a defibrillator, and each employee is trained on how to respond to a serious event such as a cardiac arrest.

A week after the incident, the member came into Charter Fitness of Bloomington with flowers, gifts, and many thanks for Henson.