First Aid Corps

It was around 8:20 p.m. on Aug. 12 when the 66-year-old Terry Sparks, grandfather of five, who suffers from congestive heart failure, collapsed at the foot of his bed after a day of changing his vehicle’s oil and cutting wood.

Terry Sparks the Survivor

“The last thing I remember is getting out of bed to get my pills because my heart was racing, and the next thing I knew I was in the back of an ambulance,” he said.

Fortunately for Sparks and his wife Jean, who heard the crash, their daughter Cindy McCreadie lives a stone’s throw away in the same rural dooryard and could be quickly summoned by her mom on an intercom that links the two homes.

McCreadie is a nurse, as is her husband Kenny who was just returning home from a shift at the Saint John Regional Hospital when the emergency happened.

Sparks, who weighed 270 pounds at the time of the episode, was unresponsive and not breathing when his daughter rushed to his aid. He was curled up on the floor, and as she worked to unfold the burly man so she could begin CPR in the confined space, Jean called 911.

“I could only hear little gasps coming from him and I was terrified,” McCreadie explained. “I call it controlled hysteria. I was doing what I needed to do but I was hysterical at the same time.”

Within moments, Cpl. Andy O’Connell of the RCMP, who was working in the area, was on the scene and took over CPR for McCreadie. Her husband Kenny also arrived home around the same time to take his turn.

That is when Sparks’ luck really turned around.

Kim Giddens, a Belleisle firefighter and trainer for St. John Ambulance, was just a couple minutes away when a call came from the province’s medic centre to respond to the Sparks residence. Normally the fire department wouldn’t get such a call but on that night in the rural area, paramedics requested assistance and so the volunteers were permitted to attend as a medical first responder as the ambulance made its way there.

Giddens performed CPR with breaks from Sparks’ family members until fire chief Bruce Sherwood arrived with the rescue truck and the automatic external defibrillator (AED) the fire department raised funds to buy a few years ago.

What happened over the next few minutes saved Sparks’ life.

Four firefighters including Giddens, Rick Reicker, Alex Boyd and Sherwood worked to exhaustion on Sparks, who remained unconscious. Following the direction of the defibrillator, which Giddens calls “idiot proof,” the firefighters delivered a mix of CPR and two shocks to Sparks’ chest.

On the second kick-start to his heart, Sparks’ arms flailed to the side with a jerk and firefighters were able to find a pulse on his wrist.

“It’s the first time we have ever been advised to shock,” Giddens said, pointing out the dire situation Sparks was actually in.

The senior instantly started to breathe and his normal skin colour was returning as the ambulance workers rushed into the house. With the help of the firefighters, Sparks was loaded into the ambulance and taken to the Saint John Regional Hospital where he spent eight days. During his stay, he had a pacemaker and a palm-sized defibrillator implanted in his chest.

“When I found out about what these guys did, I couldn’t believe it,” he added during a recent visit from the four firefighters who saved his life. “There are chances you take by living in the country, but to know these people are so well-trained and had a piece of equipment that saved my life, well, I just never knew how lucky we are here.

“I know I would have been dead if they hadn’t been here. It was the first people who had their hands on me that night that saved my life.”

The fire chief said the only time his department can help at medical calls is when they are contacted by medical dispatch asking specifically for assistance based on an ambulance’s distance away and the patient’s condition.

In all, Giddens estimates Sparks was unconscious for about 25 minutes before his heart started working again thanks to the defibrillator.

“He wouldn’t have survived much longer,” she said, applauding the efforts of Sparks’ family and the police officer for starting CPR right away, greatly increasing his chances of a recovery.

“The key was that as soon as he went down, someone knew how to give CPR.”

Sparks said he is recuperating well and has a new outlook on life. He has lost weight and is eating healthier, and has learned to relax.

“I appreciate all the things now you take for granted every day,” Sparks said.

“Something like this really puts life in perspective. My young fella always says, ‘Dad, don’t sweat the small stuff.’ Now I don’t.”

As Emilie Bioty’s boyfriend drove her to her Vandercook Lake home in August, she collapsed in the front passenger seat.

Emilie Bioty (right) the Survivor

Boyfriend Dalton Smaga made it into her driveway and ran into the house to alert Bioty’s parents, Alecia and Tom Bioty.

They performed CPR until paramedics arrived.

“They didn’t think she was going to make it,” Tom Bioty said. “We thought we had lost our baby.”

The 17-year-old survived, but she was an exception. She suffered from cardiac arrest, which kills more than 90 percent of its victims.

The Bioty family now encourage people to get trained in CPR, and Alecia Bioty says it should be taught in health classes at schools.

“You may never have to use it, but if you do need it, it’s there,” she said.

Emilie Bioty later was diagnosed with Long QT syndrome, a disorder that can cause a person to develop a dangerous heart rhythm called an arrhythmia. Now she takes medication and has a pacemaker and defibrillator.

After her near-death experience, Emilie Bioty stopped worrying about the small things and what people think about her, she said. She is a junior at Vandercook Lake High School.

“I have the support of my family, and we are dealing with what we think is our new normal,” she said.

Rosemary Williams, a 76-year-old retired registered nurse, was walking toward the Eisenhower High School gym with her daughter, Connie Bublitz, to watch a game to be coached by her granddaughter, Sarah Bublitz at a junior varsity match between Eisenhower and Springfield High School..

Williams, who has a history of heart problems, suddenly dropped to the ground while holding on to her daughter’s arm.

“She wasn’t responding,” Connie Bublitz recalled. “There was no response in her eyes, her face, nothing. There wasn’t any pulse.”

Connie Bublitz, a Macon County employee trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, performed chest compressions and delivered a couple of quick breaths into her mother’s mouth.

Michelle Bonebrake, the varsity coach, had just walked over to the gym’s entrance, to speak to the athletic director about an official who had not yet arrived. She spotted the elderly lady on the floor near the door.

“I assumed it was a heart attack,” Bonebrake recalled. “I kicked my heels off, ran across the gym and got the defibrillator.”

When Bonebrake returned, Jennifer Parsano, an emergency medical technician who was pulling concession duty at the game, had taken charge of the scene. As soon as Bonebrake returned with the machine, Parsano said Williams had no pulse and was not breathing.

A couple of students, A.J. Madison and David Reed, called 911.

Bonebrake placed the “defibrillator next to Williams and attached the patches to her chest.

“As soon we put the patches on, it assessed her and checked her heart rate,” Bonebrake said. “If her heart was not beating it would shock her. And it shocked her.”

Because there was no discernible response, Bublitz and another woman resumed performing CPR.

“The machine said, ‘Please stop compressions,’” Bonebrake recalled. “The machine assessed that her heart was not beating. Then it shocked her again.”

Just as emergency medical technicians simultaneously arrived from the Decatur Ambulance Service and Decatur Fire Department – four of five minutes after they were dispatched – Williams took her first breath.

“It was kind of surreal,” Bonebrake said. “I was just holding her hand, and staring into her eyes. I was saying, ‘Breathe, everything is going to be all right.’ Every time I said ‘breathe,’ she would breathe. If I didn’t say anything, she would not breathe. It was so miraculous to me, that she was fighting so hard.”

“That was the first time we ever used it, and thankfully the first time was successful,” Hicklin said. “It was a miracle. It was an extraordinary situation. I was so proud of the quick thinking of Michelle Bonebrake and Jennifer Parsano. They made their Eisenhower family very proud. Today’s been a very emotional day for all of us. It made us stop and reflect on what’s really important.”

Connie Bublitz said her mother, recovering in the intensive care unit of St. Mary’s Hospital on Friday, is doing pretty well.

She commended Bonebrake and Parsano as loving, genuine people, who were in the right place at the right time, and did a great job of helping her mother.