First Aid Corps

While riding a bike in the Meek and Mighty Triathlon, part of the annual St. Anthony’s Triathlon in St. Petersburg, Florida, a middle-aged man collapsed.

Teresa McCoy the Saviour

Teresa McCoy, 37, was about to finish the bike portion when she saw the man down.

According to the paper, Ms McCoy recognized the man, since she had chatted with him briefly before the start of the race.

Police who arrived on the seen allegedly thought the man might be having a seizure, but Ms McCoy found that he had no pulse.

Ms McCoy reportedly works as a cardiac nurse at nearby Tampa General Hospital.

She attempted to revive the man with CPR, and asked for a defibrillator.

Police found one and gave it to her.

According to the St. Petersburgh Times, the procedure worked, and the man came to.

He was taken to a nearby hospital and is expected to make a recovery.

Ms McCoy told the paper: ‘I’m so glad he’s alive’.

‘I know that God put me where I was supposed to be today. It’s like I was his angel today’.

After she finished saving the man’s life, Ms McCoy got back on her bike and finished the race, which consisted of swimming, biking and running portions.

The holidays are a time of year many think back on the things they are thankful for during the year.

Stranger saves Austin man’s life: kxan.com

One Austin man is thankful to be alive – all because of a good samaritan who gave him life-saving CPR when no one else knew what to do.

“I enjoy riding a bike. It’s a lot of fun,” said Stanton Truxillo.

You can find Stanton on his bike most days of the week.

“Typically I ride 4 days per week and about 150 miles per week,” said Truxillo.

But a bike ride with his cycling group back in August could have been his last. The final moment he remembers is telling his group he wasn’t feeling well.

“They started watching me, and a couple of seconds later I started feeling really bad, and I thought, that’s about as much as I got out. The whole world went black, and the last thing I saw were my handle bars,” said Truxillo.

No one knew it – but Stanton had just gone into sudden cardiac death.

“Because none of us were CPR trained, there’s that feeling of helplessness,” said William Hudson, Stanton’s friend. “Did he have a heart attack? We’re not doctors.”

A member of the group flagged down someone who knew CPR.

“It was that 5 to 7 minutes of CPR that saved his life,” said Dr. Vinh Nguyen, Cardiologist with St. David’s South Austin Medical Center.

When EMS rushed him to St. David’s – Stanton was placed in a hypothermia machine that cooled his body down to 31 degrees in order to keep his brain functioning. Still doctors said he is incredibly lucky to be alive.

Because of that his cycling group took CPR classes.

“The goal is we’d like to have someone with CPR training on every ride if we can,” said Truxillo.

So if it happens again – someone is prepared. And they hope this story inspires others to make sure they are prepared.

Stanton has not been able to track down the man who gave him life saving CPR that day in August. He left the scene once EMS arrived.

But because of his kind act Stanton has been able to get back on his bike for more than a month now and is riding about 40 miles per week.

Brian Morgan is certain that without a defibrillator he would not be here today.

View First Aid Corps World Map of AED Locations in a larger map

Yesterday it was reported how Mr Morgan suffered a heart attack on the side of the Waiohiki Rd during his usual 100km weekend cycle.

He was lucky motorists saw him collapse and performed CPR. He was even more fortunate that the nearby Napier Golf Club stored an AED (Automated External Defibrillator) and the club’s men’s captain Russell Burns knew it was there.

Brian Morgan the Survivor

Defibrillators, in Mr Burns’ words, were “idiot-proof” and designed to be used by lay persons in case of emergency. Mr Burns had never used the machine before but was familiar with one through his work as an electrician.

Mr Burns said Mr Morgan was “in pretty bad shape” when he arrived. But two zaps with the life-saving device was enough to get Mr Morgan’s heart pumping again, effectively saving his life.

The incident highlighted the value of storing defibrillators in isolated areas and populated public spaces like supermarkets, office blocks, sports stadiums and airports.

The next step was raising awareness so that people knew where to find a defibrillator in an emergency.

Without defibrillation, the chances of surviving a cardiac arrest decreased chances by 10 per cent. Minutes, quite literally, meant life.

Two Kent Police officers responded to a report of a bicyclist lying in the road at about 3:09 p.m. Sunday in the 25400 block of Lake Fenwick Road, according to a Kent Police media release.

It was initially thought that the cyclist had been struck by a car, but reportedly he had collapsed while riding.

Officer Jeff Kluzak arrived within two minutes after the call and found the man unconscious. Following a quick medical assessment, the officer started CPR.

Moments later, officer Doug Westcott arrived to help. In an effort to revive the unresponsive man, an AED carried in the police car was used to deliver a shock to the man’s heart.

Paramedics then arrived and through the combined efforts of all the responders, the man was successfully revived. He was later transported to Valley Medical Center in Renton for further treatment.

This marked the first successful application of an AED by Kent Police since the units were initially deployed last month in each patrol car.

“All of us are very pleased that our officers were able to use their judgment, training, and equipment to save a life,” Kent Police Chief Steve Strachan said.

State Police Investigator Joshua Kean was returning to the Schodack station around 9 p.m. when he came upon two cars stopped on the side of the road with their hazard lights flashing, State Police said.

The motorists directed Kean to a man — later identified as 44-year-old Mark R. Mattice of Albany — lying on the shoulder of the road next to a bicycle.

Kean radioed for help, including a trooper with automated external defibrillator, while an off-duty State Park Police officer, Michael Maycheck, stopped at the scene to help Kean with CPR, State Police said.

Within minutes, two others, Trooper Patrick Hogan and Investigator Tim Northrup, arrived on the scene with a defibrillator. Northrup worked the defibrillator while the other three performed chest compressions on Mattice, troopers said.

EMS workers shocked Mattice twice, getting him to breath on his own. He was taken by ambulance to Albany Memorial Hospital.