First Aid Corps

Ester Marsh, associate executive director of the Salisbury Y, was working outside on some back fields when her radio said the staff was needed for an emergency in the gymnasium.

19-year-old Travis Correll was lying on his side.

Someone already had called 911, and Executive Director Sandy Flowers had arrived with “the suitcase,” which contains the AED, oxygen and other first-aid items.

“I wasn’t happy with the way he was,” Marsh recalled Saturday. She used what she called a judo technique to turn the 6-4, 250-pound Correll onto his back.

She realized there was no pulse and no rising and falling of his chest — he wasn’t breathing.

Marsh started CPR compressions — 30 pushes and two breaths per cycle — while John Peterson prepared the oxygen and Randa and Barbara Franklin readied the AED.

“We all really meshed together,” Marsh said.

The staff communicated without words. Marsh was thinking Correll’s shirt should come off, and Peterson was already cutting it with scissors. She completed the job by just ripping it open.

With the AED pads attached, the words “shock advised” only confirmed what the Y staff knew: Correll was in trouble.

This was the moment of truth they had all trained for.

The group around Correll made sure they were clear, and Mary Jane Randa pushed the button.

Correll’s body jerked from the electric jolt.

The AED’s next words were just as urgent: “Continue CPR.”

After the first shock, Marsh went back to CPR, seemingly pounding on Correll’s chest.

As Marsh was ending her fourth cycle of compressions and breaths, an emergency responder took over and EMS attached its own AED to the Y’s setup.

Again, a shock was advised. After the second jolt, Correll’s heartbeat and breathing returned, and once that happened, EMS wanted to transport as soon as possible.

Travis said he wasn’t fully aware of where he was and what happened to him until three days after he collapsed. By then he was on the cardiac floor at Presbyterian and cognizant that he didn’t really like the food.

Correll said he felt tired that day after playing basketball and told someone he was going to sit down on the bleachers.

“And that’s the last I remember,” he said.

Eight days after his heart stopped, he had his new defibrillator and was going home. Travis walked out on his own, refusing a wheelchair.

When he entered the car to go home, his mother, Wilhemina Lowry, broke down in tears of thankfulness.

“That was the roughest part,” Travis said.

Jordan has no memory of the morning he nearly died at Goodson Rec Center on July 7 while training for his second triathlon of the summer. But his coach, Nick Frasersmith, recalls every detail and the fear he felt.

Jordan Myhre the Survivor

“It was a regular practice,” he said. “There was no sign of anything different from any other day.”

Jordan had just finished the last set, touching the wall before anyone else, and gone straight into warm-down.

Suddenly, Frasersmith noticed that Jordan was swimming crooked. He saw him flip over on his back and sensed something wasn’t right.

Frasersmith yelled to another swimmer to pull Jordan to the side of the pool and raced over.

As the lifeguard called 911, a woman — a nurse arriving for a water aerobics class — offered to help.

They couldn’t find a pulse, so they started CPR. The coach did rescue breathing while the nurse performed the compressions.

The lifeguard rushed over with the AED, an automated defibrillator that detected that the rhythm of Jordan’s heart indicated the need for a shock. They wiped his body dry, applied the pads and began that work.

“It was very surreal,” Frasersmith said. “The weird part was why he was in this situation. It’s not like he hit his head or slipped and fell. I thought, ‘Breathe, wake up, do something.‘ ”

They shocked his heart twice before paramedics arrived.

“It was very scary,” Frasersmith said. “He did not look like he was going to make it.”

“It was the most horrifying, terrible thing that could happen to our son, but it happened in the perfect surroundings,” said his mother, Teresa Myhre.

“I feel fine, just like before,” Jordan said. “The only difference is this thing in my chest.”

Jordan Myhre's Pacemaker

He left the hospital with a pacemaker and a defibrillator, along with a diagnosis of Long QT syndrome, a rare heart-rhythm disorder that can cause fast, chaotic heartbeats.

“I can’t believe I made it this long without anything else happening,” said Jordan, a lifelong athlete who said he loves to push his physical limits.

Learning of his diagnosis, Jordan’s older sister had herself tested for Long QT syndrome and discovered she also has it. She believes that his experience saved her life.

As for Jordan, his biggest challenge right now is taking it easy. He takes walks around the neighborhood but thinks the strolls are “boring.”

As for Jordan, his biggest challenge right now is taking it easy. He takes walks around the neighborhood but thinks the strolls are “boring.”

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Sometime on Saturday night, Jan. 24, at the Delbarton School basketball court in Morristown, N.J., hearts stopped.

Well, just one actually stopped, but many others skipped a beat at least. Poly Prep’s starting senior point guard and leader on both ends of the court, Stephen Lazzaro, suffered a sudden cardiac arrest during the opening quarter. “It was quite scary,” said assistant coach Glenn McCartney, who helped Lazzaro to the gym floor.

CPR, administered rapidly by Stephen’s dad and teammate Michael Kumar’s dad, Sampath Kumar M.D., both physicans, plus a defibrillator on the scene saved this young man’s life.

A Fund in the name of Stephen Lazzaro has been set up at SUNY Downstate for the purpose of raising monies for cardiovascular research to study valvular heart disease and arrhythmias.

Stephen has turned his attention from playing to helping the team by acting as a mentor to the younger players while helping Head Coach Bill McNally on the bench. He has been an inspiration to many while he rehabilitates from these recent events.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Soto, a sixth-grader, had no idea his heart was in trouble until he collapsed on September 26 on his way to first period.

Williams rushed to Soto’s side when he found out he was in trouble.

“When we rolled him over, he took his last breath,” Williams said.

Williams immediately began CPR and called for the school’s automated external defibrillator — commonly called an A.E.D. With the help of four of the school’s coaches — Merrick Sims, Brad Jackson, Tim Mantooth and Clarence Green — Williams got Soto hooked up to the A.E.D., which said Soto required a shock to get his heart back in action.

“As soon as the shock wave went off, he started gasping for another breath,” Williams said. “And I was able to find a pulse coming.”

“I had not doubt we were gonna get Bernardo through this,” Williams said. “No doubt.”

When asked about Mr. Williams’ actions, Soto said, “I feel happy that he did that for me.”

At Children’s Sibley Heart Center, Soto was diagnosed with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy.

“This was a divine moment and divine timing,” said Assistant Principal Greg Williams. “I feel great every time I see him. It was a meant-to-be moment.”

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Isaiah Saved

A 10-year-old Stamford boy went into full cardiac arrest Tuesday after colliding with another child at school.

Officials said the incident occurred at 11 a.m. at Heart Magnet School in Stamford.

They said Gerard Sangermano, a custodian who was CPR-certified in firefighter training, began administering CPR on fourth-grader Isaiah Walden Butler. They said school nurse Tomasena Smikle was summoned and used a defibrillator to resuscitate the child.

“We got a pulse, then the fire trucks arrived,” Sangermano said.

The boy was rushed to Stamford Hospital and his mother, Doris Walden, was called at work. She was given a police escort to the hospital.

“We flew up there running red lights, crying hysterically,” Walden said.

Isaiah was later taken by LIFESTAR to Yale-New Haven Children’s Hospital.

Hospital officials said Isaiah is recovering in the pediatric ICU. They said Isaiah could be released by the end of the week.

Tags: Child, Commotio Cordis, CPR+AED, Events, Firefighter, Life Saved, Nurse, Playground, Preteen, School