First Aid Corps

A tired but grateful Danny Berger called it a “miracle” that he was back to watch his Utah State basketball teammates play days after collapsing on the court and being revived by an assistant trainer.

Danny Berger the Survivor

Berger was released from a Salt Lake City area hospital Saturday and was back in Logan, flanked by the trainer credited with saving his life and a father who thought the worst upon receiving word of Tuesday’s life-threatening incident while driving in the middle of the Nevada desert.

“I immediately thought Hank Gathers, because I’m from there,” Berger’s father, Brian, said about the Loyola Marymount star who collapsed and died at 23 in 1990 during a West Coast Conference tournament game because of a heart-muscle disorder.

“I didn’t know what to think.”

He quipped that Nevada state troopers let him get away with driving 110 mph as he made his way through the desert toward Utah, where he was headed for the Aggies’ game Wednesday night against Brigham Young. The game was postponed and has since been rescheduled for Feb. 19.

Brian Berger also was grateful for Mike Williams, who is in his 14th year as an assistant athletic trainer at Utah State.

Williams was across the court Tuesday when Berger collapsed during a routine practice.

The 43-year-old Williams had been on site in 2007 when rodeo rider Tag Elliott nearly died after being hit in the head with a bull horn. He was among those who helped stabilize Elliott. But until Tuesday, Williams had only taught CPR and never performed it.

If Tuesday’s scene was chaotic, Williams said he didn’t have time to notice. He yelled for the manager to call 911 and get the automatic defibrillator (AED).

“I remember looking down and starting CPR, mouth to mouth, the compressions and then hooking the AED up,” Williams said. “That’s the worst part, because it takes 15 seconds to analyze and you’re just sitting there waiting.”

The machine finally said “shock advised” and Williams administered the shock, then went back to CPR. On the third set, he heard Berger gurgle a bit and then he blew another really hard breath into him.

“As I pulled up, I actually saw the pulse in his carotid artery before I felt it,” Williams said.

Only afterward, when he tried to call the head trainer, did he realize how traumatic the situation was.

The phone was ringing and ringing but no one answered. Williams finally realized he had dialed 10 random digits and that his hands were shaking.

“Afterward the adrenaline got there, but fortunately that was afterward,” Williams said.

Berger still doesn’t remember any of that, only practicing defense in preparation for the rivalry game, then feeling dizzy as if he had stood up too fast.

“One of my teammates made a shot in my face when I was guarding him and I was kind of upset about it,” he recalled Saturday.

Four days later, he looked forward to a reunion with the rest of his teammates, who will be wearing “12″ patches on the jerseys. First, he wanted a nap.

“I can’t explain everything. It’s just a miracle,” said Danny Berger, his left arm in a sling to protect the miniature defibrillator installed so doctors can monitor his heart remotely should there be any further problems.

Doctors cannot fully explain what caused the 22-year-old to collapse but said he was born with a tendency for this to happen because of his heart having two to three extra beats, according to Dr. Jared Brunch of the Intermountain Medical Center, where he was transported Tuesday via medical helicopter.

The elder Berger said Brunch told him Brunch is much more likely to have a heart attack than Danny and that Danny is less likely to have a problem than anybody on the team because of the defibrillator.

The starting forward remains hopeful he will play again but is taking it day by day. Six weeks is the earliest he can get back out on the court.

“I just have to trust the experts,” Brian Berger said.

Danny’s mom is a little less enthusiastic.

“She just wants me to be in the library for the rest of my life,” Danny joked.

All were grateful to be in Logan, getting ready to watch a basketball game with their son.

“There’s literally dozens of people who have played a role in this whole process just in these last four days,” Brian Berger said. “And every single person has done the exact right thing that they needed to do, starting with Mike. … If it hadn’t been for Mike and the quick response … I’ve got nothing but gratitude.

“Four days ago we didn’t know what was going to happen, and (Friday) Danny was walking on the treadmill. When you have something like this happen, it’s that time period where it’s either fatal or not, or brain damage or not.”

Danny, though he doesn’t remember Williams at his side Tuesday, was glad to have him there Saturday during a news conference before the game against Western Oregon.

“I tried to tell the doctor that I want (Williams) to be my personal defibrillator but they didn’t buy it, they had to put one in there,” Danny Berger said. “I owe Mike a lot. I can’t ever pay him back. He’s one of the smartest guys I know, and a life-long friend.”

Westbrook High’s athletic trainer Anita Dixon was sitting with her four college interns, watching the waning minutes of the first half of the girls junior varsity contest between the Blue Blazes and the Falmouth Yachtsmen, when she was pressed into action.

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“A couple of them had made a comment that that guy, he doesn’t look very good,” stated Dixon. “Needless to say he collapsed later on.”

He was Larry Moreau, a longtime official of local sporting events ranging from basketball to soccer to softball, who apparently suffered a heart attack while working the game.

“We were behind the girls basketball bench and all of a sudden we heard a thud, and it was him that had hit the floor,” she recalled.

Dixon and her students rushed to Moreau’s side and assessed the situation.

“When we did first get to him he was unconscious, but he was breathing and had very weak pulse,” she explained. “Later on, he ended up not breathing, and we had to use the AED to shock him to get his heart back in rhythm.”

The automated external defibrillator, or AED, saved Moreau’s life. An ambulance crew arrived soon there after and transported him to Maine Medical Center where he underwent emergency surgery and is in satisfactory condition.

“My training staff did a wonderful job,” said first year Westbrook athletic director, Marc Sawyer. “It was as organized and precise as a tough situation can be.”

“I think it is important that we recognize that technology and expertise really saved the day yesterday,” he added. “I don’t think there is any question, without the AED last night, we might be having a little bit different conversation here today.”

Anita Dixon says she is not a hero for saving Moreau’s life.

“I am grateful that he is still here and it doesn’t matter what I did,” she said. “It is just that the guy is in stable condition and that we did what we needed to do in order for him to still be here.”

Sawyer met with student athletes from both schools to talk with them about the traumatic situation, and says they have already begun having discussions about planning a fundraiser to raise money to buy AED’s and generate awareness about the life-saving devices.

Xhosa Fray-Chinn didn’t know he suffered from a heart condition until he collapsed while playing basketball in a summer league at Avalon Middle School in July.

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“I don’t remember anything. It was just a blank day for me,” said Fray-Chinn.

Fray-Chinn, who just graduated from Timber Creek High School in May, stands 6 feet 5 inches tall and is a natural on the court.

“I’ve just grown to love it since I was young,” said Fray-Chinn.

When he collapsed, his father began CPR while someone else grabbed the automated external defibrillator from the gym.

“This was the perfect resuscitation effort, the perfect coordination of people working fast and efficiently,” said Florida Hospital pediatric cardiologist Dr. Augustin Ramos.

“It was indeed a blessing. It was just an incredible occurrence the way things happened to save him,” said Vernon Chinn.

The AED that saved Fray-Chinn’s life was donated to the middle school by a mother who lost her son in 2004.

Martha Lopez-Anderson founded Saving Young Hearts two years after her 10-year-old son Sean went into sudden cardiac arrest.

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.

A potential life-threatening disaster was averted Wednesday afternoon at the North Dodge Athletic Club thanks to some quick thinking and one of the club’s defibrillators.

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Local attorney and former state representative Joe Johnston, 73, was playing basketball at the club when he collapsed shortly after noon, a result of a heart issue doctors determined was not a heart attack.

Club manager Skyler Moss, who was playing basketball in a nearby court, ran over when he heard shouting. He grabbed one of the club’s two defibrillators, machines that send electric shocks to the heart to re-establish its rhythm.

Once the machine gave the clear for the first shock, he delivered it and got no response. After a few minutes later, he delivered a second shock — still no response. When paramedics arrived about two minutes after being called, they delivered a third shock. This time, they detected a pulse.

“The shocking thing was he was laying on the ground dead for three or four minutes,” said Randy Larson, who has known Johnston for three decades and helped give him CPR Wednesday. “There was no pulse, no breathing. He was just laying there and people were working on him, but he was making no motions of any kind. To be awake and then talking 20 minutes later, that’s incredible. It’s a great testament to the power of the defibrillator and a fast emergency response.”

Johnston still was in the hospital Wednesday night in good condition, Larson said. He said Johnston has a history of heart problems and had heart surgery a few years ago.

“We always have called him a medical miracle anyway because, you know, he’s playing basketball at 73,” Larson said, “and this isn’t half court basketball, this is regular basketball with 20-year-olds. He’s just an amazing guy.”

Steve Moss, the club’s owner, said it’s not the first time the defibrillator has been used in an emergency situation. Since the club got its first defibrillator in 1999, at least one other man suffering from a heart attack was saved.

Unfortunately, before they got the machine, another man in his late 70s did not. Steve Moss said that man collapsed while playing racquetball and the rescue crew didn’t make it in time to save him.

“That’s one of the reasons we fought like hell to get it,” he said.

They’ve since gotten a second defibrillator, Steve Moss said.

The Johnson County Early Defibrillation Task Force has worked for years to get defibrillators installed in public places around the city. The task force succeeded in getting them placed in more law enforcement vehicles than before, including the sheriff’s office and the North Liberty Police Department.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek, a member of the task force, said that when someone goes into cardiac arrest, their chances of dying increase by 10 percent for every minute that goes by without access to a defibrillator.

“There’s a huge value to it,” Pulkrabek said of having the machines in public places.