First Aid Corps

Peter is a Customer Care Agent at East Midlands Airport and was at work on that particular day, although not on duty as an operational First Responder, nonetheless his skills were urgently required when a male passenger collapsed in the airport terminal.

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CPR (Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation) had been commenced by a fellow passenger and a defibrillator had been brought to the scene. By this time the casualty was in cardiac arrest, which means that his heart had stopped beating, so Peter deployed the defibrillator whilst assisting with CPR.

Peter Van Der Wal the Saviour

Two shocks were given, which along with sustained CPR were successful in the casualty’s heart regaining a regular rhythm and subsequently regaining consciousness.

An ambulance crew and a doctor were very soon on the scene and all agreed that had it not been for Peter’s skill and management of the incident, together with his prompt and decisive action the casualty is unlikely to have survived.

Phoenix Sky Harbor had its 28th AED save on Wednesday, Feb. 16.

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Shortly after 2 p.m., a 79 year-old man from North Carolina, who was traveling with his wife, collapsed near gate C3 in Terminal 4 as they waited for a connecting flight.

Phoenix Airport police officers responded to the call.

The man had no pulse and was not breathing.

An airline employee retrieved the AED and then Officer Joe Liska, who is trained in the use of AEDs, administered one shock to the man. Officer Tom Beck arrived on the scene and began giving chest compressions.

When firefighters arrived, the man was breathing and had a heartbeat. He was taken to the hospital and is currently recovering.

Two doctors from Long Island are credited with saving the life of a man at Kennedy Airport.

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He went into cardiac arrest inside terminal 4 Wednesday night and the doctors came to the rescue, despite some challenges.

“Where are the AEDs? Why isn’t it more available to the public? Why can’t we find it, why can’t we see it?” said Dr. Bruce Decter, a cardiologist.

They are life-saving questions Dr. Bruce Decter asks as to the whereabouts of the automatic external defibrillators or AEDs.

One of them was critically needed at JFK’s terminal 4 after a passenger suddenly collapsed and started to turn blue.

“I felt the pulse. I listened for breathing. I found none. I started the CPR,” Dr. Decter said.

With Dr. Scott Danoff, a dentist at his side, Dr. Decter also asks someone to call 911 and for the AED.

“I really repeated, ‘Where’s the AED?’” Dr. Decter said.

“I was thinking about it the whole time, all during the chest compressions, you’re looking around to see who is coming with an AED and there was nobody coming in,” said Dr. Scott Danoff, a dentist.

A Port Authority Police officer, who also responded, ran to get a portable device according to the doctors.

It’s unknown where he retrieved the AED.

“But by that time, the patient was revived,” Dr. Decter said.

“It was nowhere to be found, and the chances are it is hidden behind some piece of equipment or some barrier or some x-ray machine they use for security purposes,” Dr. Danoff said.

The private company that manages terminal 4 did not respond to Eyewitness News’ calls for comment or request to see the placement of the AEDs.

The doctors say they should be more visible.

“Maybe put it on a column somewhere, on a wall, but maybe put a one food wide red stripe going up 10 feet,” Dr. Danoff said.

“It was the most frustrating thing not to have that device, and I find we were very lucky that he survived,” Dr. Decter said.

Port Authority Officials say that there are defibrillators in terminal 4 and that many of them were placed there with an expansion of the program in 2006.

Sandy Boudrou of Sequim finally got a chance to practice what she teaches.

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Boudrou, an emergency medical service aid for Clallam County Fire District 3, saved a man’s life on Nov. 17 at SEA-TAC airport using CPR tactics she has taught in Utah, Sequim and at Evergreen Hospital for a combination of 27 years.

“It was so exhilarating,” Boudrou said.

“After all these years, it was the first time to do it on my own and not on the job.”

Around 2:30 p.m., while waiting for her luggage after a trip to Phoenix, Ariz., Boudrou stood in the baggage claim with her sister.

Suddenly, an older man standing next to Boudrou collapsed.

He began gasping for air, which was a sign of agonal respiration — slow, involuntary breaths usually taken close to death.

“People didn’t recognize he wasn’t breathing,” Boudrou said.

“One person even shouted that he was breathing.”

She recognized the symptoms and yelled for someone to call 9-1-1 and to get an automated external defibrillator, an AED.

Boudrou believes no one would have started CPR if she hadn’t identified the problem.

She checked for a heart rate and to see if he was breathing before hooking the AED to him. The machine identified that the man had gone into ventricular fibrillation, or VF, a condition hard to detect when checking for a pulse. The AED shocked his heart and resuscitated him.

Then Boudrou began 100 manual compressions a minute.

“When I was doing (CPR), people were crying and praying,” Boudrou said.

“It was real exciting. I’m so used to being on duty. It was so classic.”

Boudrou maintained the repetitions for a few minutes before the man revived.

When medics arrived five minutes later, he was alert but vomiting, which Boudrou said is characteristic of people going into ventricular fibrillation.

She later discovered the man was 76, had a pacemaker and was diabetic.

Boudrou remains humble about the experience.

“Anybody could have done that with the right training,” she said.

“That machine and quick CPR saved his life. That’s why there are AEDs everywhere.”

The 59-year-old Michigan man had just stepped off a flight at Fort Lauderdale-Hollywood International Airport from Mexico with his wife and was headed to a connecting flight to Michigan when he went into full cardiac arrest inside Terminal 4 just before 3:30 p.m.

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Deputies Dave Kofalk and Joe Baxter were escorting a prisoner through the airport when they were told about the stricken man, who was not breathing and had no pulse.

The deputies quickly grabbed a nearby Automated External Defibrillator device, also known as an AED, and used it to deliver a shock of electricity to revive the man’s heart beat.

Moments later, the man’s pulse and breathing started up again, and firefighter/paramedics arrived to continue treatment and take him to Broward General Medical Center.

The man underwent surgery Friday night, but his condition was not available.