First Aid Corps

John Porter at the NewPage Duluth paper mill said a few thank-yous to some co-workers Tuesday.

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Nothing big, they just saved his life is all.

Porter, 55, was at work in the mill’s control room July 6 when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. He doesn’t remember the heart attack, but he remembers waking up in the hospital and being told that his co-workers had saved his life using their training and an automatic external defibrillator.

“I’ll never look at these guys the same way again,” Porter said.

The saviours included Tiffany Johnson, Nevada Torrence, Cathy Baker, Steve Blank, Tim Morris, Steve Ratte, Lonnie Simonson, Richard Swanson, Bryan Blazejak, Jay Pederson and Matt King.

A local company honored some of its employees on Friday for their efforts in saving a co-worker’s life.

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Back in May, one of the employees at ECR International suffered a heart attack in the Customer Service Department. A signal code red alerted other employees in the building who are trained as first responders and the employee’s pulse was restored with an automated external defibrillator.

Director of Human Resources Johnita DeMatteo says the incident was life changing for all involved.

“I was really very concerned about the employee, hoping that he was going to be okay,” DeMatteo said. “I just did what I had to do. I really didn’t think about it. Your adrenaline kicks in and you just do what you have to do.”

A contractor doing electrical work at the Lawrence Township Department of Public Works facility was electrocuted this afternoon (Friday, July 8), but coworkers, township police officers and emergency medical personnel teamed up to restart the man’s heart and restore his breathing, township police department spokesman Lt. Charles Edgar confirmed.

The contractor, 24-year-old Zaed Quituqa of Haledon, was listed in critical condition at Capital Health Regional Medical Center in Trenton this evening, he said.

Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) initiated by Quituqa’s coworkers and continued by Officer Shawn Carroll and Sgt. Michael Yeh, along with the use by the police officers of an automated external defibrillator (AED), was credited with saving Quituqa’s life, Edgar said.

Standing on the elevated platform of a scissor-type lift, Quituqa and a coworker from I & T Electrical Lighting of Paterson were working on overhead lights in the public works garage in the 200 block Bakers Basin Road when the accident happened about 3:15 p.m., Edgar said.

Police are still investigating exactly what happened, he said, but somehow Quituqa came in contact with electricity.

When his coworker realized Quituqa was being shocked, the coworker used his foot to kick Quituqa clear of the lighting and anything else he might have been touching, such as the metal rails for one of the garage’s overhead doors, according to Edgar. The coworker was not hurt, he said.

The coworker quickly lowered the lift and he and others moved Quituqa from the lift to the floor. He was not breathing and had no pulse at that time, Edgar said.

While a public works employee dialed 911 to request assistance, he said, Quituqa’s coworkers started CPR.

Carroll and Yeh soon arrived. Confirming that Quituqa was in cardiac arrest, they connected a defibrillator to Quituqa and delivered an electrical pulse to his body in the hope the targeted shock would jumpstart his heart into beating correctly again, Edgar said. After the delivering the shock, Carroll and Yeh resumed CPR.

After about two minutes of them performing CPR, Quituqa’s heart began beating again and he started to breathe, he said.

Lawrence Township Emergency Medical Service personnel and paramedics from Capital Health System then arrived to take over patient care. They quickly bundled Quituqa into an ambulance and rushed him to the hospital in Trenton.

When popular southern-based harness racing equine veterinarian Dr Art Meeker suffered a massive heart attack last Thursday (June 30) there seemed little hope he would survive the ordeal. Meeker suffered the attack while tending a horse trained by Royston Carr at the Brighton Training Complex.

Dr Art Meeker the Survivor

Carr was applying Cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) within a minute of Meeker falling to the ground, a process he maintained until the ambulance arrived.

He was rushed to the Royal Hobart Hospital with paramedics needing to apply defibrillator paddles twice in an endeavour to keep Meeker alive.

Mixed messages emerged with many industry participants convinced he had passed away but Meeker had other ideas.

He was placed in an induced coma for about 24 hours and late on Friday afternoon he was awake and talking to his wife Shirley and family members who had gathered at his bedside fearing the worst.

“I remember going to Royston’s stables but I have no recollection of what happened from then to when I woke up yesterday,” Meeker said yesterday from his ICU bed.

“I believe I owe my life to Royston so I’m looking forward to thanking him when I get back to his stables, which will hopefully be in the very near future,” he said.

Meeker expects to remain in hospital for at least a few more days.

“They will do an angiogram tomorrow (Sunday) to try and detect what may have caused the heart attack and then we’ll take things from there.”

“To be honest I feel really good and if it wasn’t for people telling me that I was in a very bad way I’d be pushing to get out of this place and go back to work.”

“I believe some people wrote me off but I’m still here and I mean to stay around for quite a bit longer,” he said.

As the after-lunch lethargy was settling in on March 2 at CGI Group Inc.’s Washington Navy Yard office, workers got a jolt of adrenaline when people starting yelling, “Call 911!” and “Who knows CPR?”

Meghan Pituch, 26, a graphic artist and analyst who’s worked at the Montreal-based IT company for four years, jumped out of her seat and ran toward the commotion. She found her colleague, 62-year-old Bruce Strissel, slumped over in his chair. Some coworkers froze in fear while others ran to dial 911 or fled in search of help.

Pituch got moving, too – toward Strissel. She and Donna Jordan, a colleague who works for BAE Systems, performed CPR on the government worker while another colleague Barbara Gault, who is certified in CPR, supervised them until the paramedics arrived. Because of their quick thinking and swift action, Strissel is alive and well today.

To recognize their efforts, the American Heart Association (AHA); the DC City Council; and DC Fire and Emergency Medical Services honored the three women as Heartsaver Heroes at a ceremony at the City Council steps on June 2. Part of National CPR Week, they each received a framed award certificate and a letter of recognition from DC Councilmember Harry Thomas Jr.

“Even though Meghan was not certified in CPR at the time, she, Barbara and Donna demonstrated that being active responders saves lives,” said Cheryl Campbell, senior vice president at CGI and a member of AHA’s Mid-Atlantic Affiliate Board of Directors. “This shows you simply cannot be a passive bystander in times of an emergency medical crisis.”