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At least that’s what Hungerbuhler, 42, thought was happening.

Sam Hungerbuhler the Survivor

“I was sitting there watching the kids going to the ceiling, but at the same time I was like ‘Why are the kids going to the ceiling?’”

That was Hungerbuhler, 5-foot-5-inches tall and 160 pounds, passing out from a heart attack.

Hungerbuhler, a respiratory therapist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Scottish Rite, was in luck.

His wife, Trish, is a nurse at Children’s and knew that Queen of Angels is equipped with an automated external defibrillator (AED) machine that tells users how many shocks are needed while medics are dispatched.

The game stopped, and game attendees stood around the edge of the basketball court saying prayers.

Another nurse helped with CPR — Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“She was doing the compressions and my wife was doing the mouth-to-mouth,” Hungerbuhler said.

The nurse’s husband, an anesthesiologist, held his jaw open.

“After the shock, the machine said keep doing the compression,” said Hungerbuhler. “The machine told them what they needed to be doing.”

Queen of Angels nurses Robin Spinner and Rae Ann Gruver were responsible for ensuring the AED batteries and pads were updated regularly.

“These roles are typical, crucial ones played by school nurses,” said Sheila Vahey, Johns Creek Cluster Nurse for Fulton County Schools. “If the AED is not properly maintained, it won’t work in an emergency when a life is on the line.”

Hungerbuhler is grateful to have had a heart attack at a school equipped with life-saving gear. Hungerbuhler’s right coronary artery had been completely blocked. He said he knew his family has a history of heart attacks, but he never thought it would happen to him.

“I never had chest pains, I was in good shape, I exercised and didn’t think it would happen to me,” he said.

All the physicians and nurses who treated him said he was “lucky.”

In the New Year, Hungerbuhler has a fresh outlook on life.

“Being more positive and encouraging other people not to put it away like I did,” he said. “Pay attention to your body, especially if you have a family history.”

His friends have listened and have gone to get checked out.

“I feel great. I guess when you’re used to living with it and it happens over time, you don’t notice it,” Hungerbuhler said. “Now I feel more awake and more aware.”

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The approximately 100 people who showed up at the Mount Shasta Resort for a slideshow about New Zealand last Wednesday got much more than they bargained for when 83 year old Erv Gross had a heart attack and collapsed to the floor.

“Thank God for the doctors, the defibrillator and the prayers surrounding me,” said 83 year old Erv Gross from his home on Monday, where he’s now doing just fine. “I’ll be forever grateful… and I can’t talk much longer or I’ll start to cry.”

When Gross went down in the crowded room, just as he arrived a few minutes before the presentation began, Peter Mt. Shasta, who was standing nearby, thought he’d banged his head.

“I tried to talk to him, but when he didn’t respond I put my hand on his heart and felt there was no beat and that he had stopped breathing,” Mt. Shasta said.

Doctors Jim Parker and Alan Cohn rushed over and immediately began CPR.

Mount Shasta’s Raven Stevens, who was standing directly behind Gross when he fell, immediately called 911.

Several other people with emergency training and cool heads were also present, including Lon Fitton, who took over chest compressions for Parker when he became exhausted, Neil Posson, Carol Winston, and Rick Demarest.

Demarest said Parker looked up at one point to ask if there was a defibrillator in the house, and he and Stevens went to find one.

“I ran to the front desk to ask if they had a defibrillator, and they did,” Stevens said. She quickly ran back upstairs with the device.

The machine had its own verbal instructions on how to get it working and talked the group through all the steps. After it was charged and Parker got the paddles on, they pressed the button.

“He had no pulse. He wasn’t breathing and was turning blue,” Parker said. “This man was very fortunate to get nearly immediate CPR and shortly thereafter the benefit of the defibrillator.”

Parker said after Gross was shocked with the defibrillator, his heart began beating again on its own, but he still wasn’t breathing. A short while later, he began gasping and his color returned.

A few minutes after Gross began breathing, Parker said emergency crews arrived from the Mount Shasta Fire Protection District and Mt. Shasta Ambulance.

He was taken to Mercy Medical Center Mt. Shasta and then to Mercy Redding.

Cohn said he was glad he could be helpful in such an intense situation.

“I was aware that this was a life and death situation, but at the same time I knew I was doing what I could to help,” he said.

“As a physician, whenever you hear ‘Is there a doctor in the house?’ you have to respond… I’m just glad there were a lot of people there to help,” said Parker.

Both doctors believe the defibrillator saved Gross’s life.

“Two weeks ago, I’d have bet anything I would never have a heart attack,” said Gross, who owns American Stor-n-loc in Weed and has been a Siskiyou County resident since 1979. “I’m an average weight and I eat healthy; I just can’t believe it.”

Parker said he was so impressed with the AED and its detailed instructions, he is looking into purchasing one for his own office. He praised the crowd for its quick thinking and the response of the emergency responders.

Gross will celebrate his 84th birthday next month.

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Roy Tousley collapsed at Galleria Dallas on Oct. 27. In a matter of minutes, his friend had started CPR.

A doctor walking by intervened next and began compressions.

Mall security then arrived and gave him two shocks with an AED, but Tousley was still in danger.

Dallas Fire-Rescue Engine 20 was first on the scene and took over, continuing CPR and using the defibrillator. By the time firefighters got Tousley to Medical City Dallas he was breathing on his own and stable.

“This is an awesome outcome, we’re very happy to see it. We don’t get to see it enough,” said Jay Prigmore the driver, engineer and paramedic for Engine 20.

Tousley and his wife stopped by the fire house on Wednesday to say thank you to rescuers.

“I came to the fire station to give my very best to these gentlemen that saved my life,” said Tousley.

“We need to get defibrillators in every public place that we can,” said Myrna Tousley. “We need everybody to take a CPR course, that’s crucial.”

Phil Roe the Saviour

Roe, who was a practicing OB/GYN before he was elected to Congress, was walking through the airport with fellow Congressman Mick Mulvaney (R-S.C.) when someone cried out about a man who had collapsed.

Roe immediately rushed over and began performing CPR in an attempt to save the man’s life. By the time Roe reached him, the man did not have a heartbeat.

The congressman “brought the man back to life — he was dead. The AED [automatic external defibrillator] machine showed that he was flat-lining,” Roe’s press secretary, Amanda Little, told POLITICO.

CPR was not successful in resuscitating the man, so when emergency medical technicians arrived shortly after, Roe assisted them with the emergency defibrillator, which shocked the man back to life, added Little.

The man who collapsed is currently in stable condition, according to Roe’s office. “We checked in this morning, and last we heard this morning, the man was going to be OK,” said Little.

Roe’s quick actions very likely saved the man’s life, said Mulvaney, who was present at the scene the whole time. “This guy is alive because of Phil Roe and a couple other very important people at the airport,” Mulvaney told the DC.

For his part, Roe was humble and commended local emergency officials. “I really want to praise the police officers there and the EMTs,” he told the DC. “They did a great job. I’m just glad I’m around and able to help.”

Roe said that this morning’s incident was his first time using a portable defibrillator.

Sam Shafer & Bob Wright the Saviours

A 17-year-old Decorah cross country runner collapsed Thursday evening while running in the Rich Engel Cross Country Classic at Birdsall Park in Cedar Falls. A spectator at the event, Dr. Greg Hoekstra, administered CPR until Cedar Falls police officer Sam Shafer and reserve officer Bob Wright arrived on the scene. The officers had an automated external defibrillator and administered a shock to jump-start the teen’s heart.

He was taken to Sartori Memorial Hospital.

Sartori personnel called the on-scene response a “textbook save” and noted that CPR alone most likely would not have saved the teen’s life.

Adam Riley, activities director for Decorah High School, said the student is doing well but was still in Cedar Falls for testing as of Friday afternoon.

“We’re very appreciative of the efforts of the Cedar Falls Police Department and Sartori hospital,” Riley said Friday. “We very easily could have lost a student yesterday.”

Cedar Falls police have been carrying the defibrillators in each squad car for about eight years. Each officer is recertified to use the device each year.

“Frequently, we’re on the scene before ambulances and paramedics, so you have to do what you can,” said Police Chief Jeff Olson. “We’re just thrilled when we can do something like this to help.”

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Dental workers revived Ron Tyler after his car smashed into their office at 4901 Bryant Irvin Boulevard.

Julie Watson the Saviour

“I would have been sitting there. Right there,” said dental hygienist Jessica Weyman, pointing to the front of a car resting on the examination chair in her office. “A few more minutes, there would have been a patient in that chair.”

It was about 8 a.m. when the car rocketed into the dental office of Dr. Gary Pointer.

“Looking out the front door, [I] saw trees, bricks and a car go flying by the front door,” said dance instructor Debbi Jo Utter.

The car went airborne just a step or two from Utter’s dance studio nearby.

“I’m sure the tree, the fence and the pole slowed him down,” said Utter. “He was going fast.”

Office workers rushed to the lifeless driver.

“[I] went back inside and got some gloves,” said dental hygienist Julie Watson. “Came back out and noticed he was unresponsive; had no pulse.”

Watson yelled for someone to bring the automated external defibrillator, or AED.

“[I] put the patches on him and shocked him and started CPR,” Watson said. “Luckily there was an MD at the end of the building, in another office. He came down and took over chest compressions for us.”

“Doing that CPR, you could see the color come back,” Weyman said. “It was pretty amazing.”

It took a number of “pretty amazing” coincidences to avoid any loss of life in the accident.

“This could have been a disaster,” Utter said. “We have 1,500 kids a week coming through this building.”

There were no kids at the dance studio; no one was in the dentist’s chair; and a building full of people equipped to save the driver’s life were right there.

And then there was this bit of luck:

“I’m usually not good under pressure, but luckily I held it together today… and fell apart afterward,” Watson said.

Ex-chairman of Longstone GAA, Hugh Rodgers, who was at the match on Sunday, said he saw Mr Tumelty suddenly collapse while running.

“The game was coming very close to the end and as he was running he fell flat on his face.

“I thought he had tripped but it became clear he was in grave danger. It became quickly apparent it was serious,” he said.

“It took a few minutes for it to transfer through that it wasn’t a broken ankle, and therefore it (the match) would be cancelled.”

The 46-year-old from Ballykinler was treated on the pitch by medical staff at around 9pm. It is the second time in two weeks that the device has been used pitch-side in Northern Ireland.

As recently as last month a defibrillator was used on Chris McNeill (17), after he collapsed while playing in a Milk Cup match in Portstewart on July 25.

On Sunday medics from both teams as well as three doctors watching the game came to the referee’s assistance when he collapsed during the last few minutes of injury time. One Burren team member who works as a dentist placed Mr Tumelty in the recovery position before the defibrillator was used to revive him.

He was rushed to nearby Daisy Hill Hospital before being transferred to Craigavon Area hospital yesterday afternoon where he is now in a stable condition.

Mr Rodgers said he didn’t believe Mr Tumelty suffered from a serious health problem and added that referees at senior level would have a high degree of fitness.

Jim Van Cleve the Survivor

He was near death.

It was his lucky day.

An emergency medical technician was working the game and a cardiologist was in the crowd for the June 26 Bristol Alumni and Athletic Association seventh annual exhibition softball classic at the Bristol Borough Little League Field. And EMT Ken Hopkins remembered to bring along his automatic emergency defibrillator.

Both saw Van Cleve fall.

“The crowd started acting funny …,” said Hopkins, of the Bucks County Rescue Squad. “I ran to my truck and grabbed medical equipment used to treat cardiac arrest.”

At first Hopkins thought Van Cleve, 72, was having a seizure, but then he stopped breathing. Dr. Daniel Vile from Einstein Medical Center in Philadelphia knew he was suffering a heart attack.

Hopkins and Vile arrived at Van Cleve’s side about the same time. Vile began administering CPR, then Hopkins used the AED.

“I remember earlier that day I was on bike detail and remembered to bring the AED with me to the softball game,” Hopkins said. “That device saved Jim’s life.”

Van Cleve of Bristol Township had stopped breathing and his heart had gone into an abnormal rhythm when the EMT defibrillated him several times to bring back his pulse. Minutes later, he was placed on a stretcher in an ambulance and an IV of lidocaine was placed in his leg, to stabilize his irregular heart rhythm. Still unconscious, he began breathing on his own on the way to Lower Bucks Hospital, where he woke up shortly after.

“All I remember is getting ready to run to the next base and then waking up in a hospital room,” Van Cleve said. “It’s still hard to believe.”

Hopkins, Vile and Van Cleve met Tuesday, the first time since the incident, at the same field.

“Ken and Daniel saved my life. I believe what happened that day was a miracle,” Van Cleve said, wiping tears from his eyes. “After I got out of the hospital I heard that when Ken was giving me medical treatment during the game, many players and people in the stands crowded around home plate and said a prayer for me. There were an awful lot of angels there.”

And the AED.

“In my 15 years as a firefighter, first responder and EMT, I’ve been involved in two cases like this where the person survived the heart attack,” Hopkins said. “In these cases, they survived because an AED was used.”

Van Cleve’s heart attack and subsequent treatment shines a light on a bigger problem: the lack of AEDs in the community, said Hopkins.

“We need these devices in more places in the community,’’ he said. “Whether it’s the baseball field, supermarket or any public place, we need them and training for people on how to use them.”

Even if CPR is performed, defibrillation from an AED is required to stop the abnormal rhythm and restore a normal heart rhythm, according to the American Heart Association website.

Without that, Van Cleve wouldn’t be making plans to play in next year’s softball game.

“I feel great now, I just got back from a vacation to Israel,” he said, grinning. “My new pacemaker got me out of all the long airport security lines.”

Ron Raidy the Survivor

The Bartlett man and his Civil War re-enactment group, Stanford’s Battery, were nearing the end of the Hinsdale July Fourth parade. The Confederate artillery unit draws a lot of interest wherever it goes, especially when they fire the bronze cannon perched on its carriage.

“We had pushed the cannon for more than a mile,” Raidy said, “but I felt fine. I didn’t feel anything coming on.”

Instead of hearing the crowd’s cheer, the 61-year-old collapsed in full cardiac arrest. On Thursday he was recovering from quadruple bypass surgery performed Wednesday at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital.

“It’s like a miracle,” Raidy said.

By all accounts, Raidy is one lucky man. Although he had no history of heart trouble and he was in good shape leading up to the parade — from pushing a cannon for the last three years, he quips — he nearly died in his boots.

“His timing couldn’t have been better,” said Kevin Baker, a firefighter and paramedic with the Hinsdale Fire Department. “The (Adventist Hinsdale) hospital float was right behind him, so there were a lot of medical personnel right there.”

As even better luck would have it, a cardiologist who specializes in heart rhythms was watching the parade with his family, taking in the Confederate group.

“I noticed all the commotion when he went down,” said Dr. Greg Lewis of Hinsdale-based Illinois Heart and Vascular. “When he wasn’t getting up, I went over and found that he was unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse.”

Lewis recognized Raidy was in danger of dying. He immediately began administering CPR, staying with it until Hinsdale Police Officer Tim Lennox arrived with an automatic external defibrillator. The AED shocked Raidy enough to resuscitate him, and Hinsdale paramedics took him to the hospital.

Firefighters said they see too many cardiac arrest cases that don’t have happy endings.

“We see a cardiac incident from time to time,” Baker said, “but what we don’t see is one of them go down in front of us.

“Just knowing he has had a successful outcome,” he added, “makes all of our work and training worthwhile.”

Lewis concurred, adding that while he diagnoses heart rhythms every day, he never expected to be doing it on his day off.

“When a cardiac arrest happens outside of the hospital, your only hope is that someone is there to witness it, and someone has immediate access to a defibrillator,” he said. “In this case, he had both of those. Were it not for those, he would have been dead.”

On Thursday, Raidy said he felt “good” and was “getting better.” He works in cargo customs compliance for Air Canada at O’Hare Airport, which will have to live without him for a while.

His biggest disappointment, however, is missing this weekend’s Civil War Days in Wauconda, where his unit had to carry on without him.

“The doctors haven’t talked about when I can return,” Raidy said. “But I’ll be back.”

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Seconds after a heat of the decathlons’ 400 meters, Schmidt, the director of Mississippi State University track and field, felt dizzy. A shortness of breath followed.

Al Schmidt the Survivor

Still struggling to breathe, he scanned Spec Towns Track in Athens Ga., for MSU track coaches Steve Dudley and Houston Franks then walked toward them, holding a copper container with glycerine pills. He reached for Dudley where he collapsed, falling into Dudley’s arms, the beginning of his latest fight for his life.

Time, which track coaches constantly monitor, was in short supply.

By the time Dudley took the top off the pill bottle, Schmidt’s jaw had locked. So he rubbed the medicine on his gum line to get it in his bloodstream. It had no effect.

Scar tissue from a triple bypass surgery was causing an arrhythmia — an irregular heart beat — disrupting his heart’s normal functions, blocking blood from traveling throughout his body.

If not corrected, Schmidt’s heart would stop. His skin started to turn blue.

“I checked his pulse,” Dudley remembered. “It was a light pulse but not a good pulse.”

Shocked, athletes surrounded Schmidt. Dudley yelled for an ambulance and medical assistance. Dr. Donald Lazas, the father of a runner from the University of Arkansas, ran from his seat in the stands and performed CPR. Ron Courson, an athletic trainer at the University of Georgia, retrieved the on-site automated external defibrillator (AED).

Schmidt’s pulse returned after the defibrillator’s first administration, then faded. He flat-lined.

It was administered again. This time, his pulse returned and settled, allowing Schmidt’s heart to re-establish an effective rhythm.

Emergency medical support was still en route, but the entrance gate was closed. MSU freshman James Harris ran toward the gate and pushed it open as the ambulance arrived, saving four to five minutes it would have taken EMS personnel to enter the track through a different gate. With cardiac arrest, four to five minutes is long enough to suffer brain damage.

Schmidt, already the survivor of a heart attack in 1998, was now stable and communicating with EMS personnel. He was transported to Athens Regional Medical Center, where he received cardiac catheterization.

Before leaving Athens, Schmidt endured two surgeries — a second bypass surgery and a pacemaker and internal defibrillator installation.

Six weeks later, when MSU introduced new softball coach Vann Stuedeman, most of MSU’s coaches were on hand to welcome her.

Schmidt was there, too, showing no physical effects of open heart surgery. In fact, he told MSU Director of Athletics Scott Stricklin he walked two miles that day.

“To see him not just doing better but feeling good enough to come into work is great,” Stricklin said.

Though he can’t recall the length of time that passed while he was in cardiac arrest, Schmidt understands the mechanics of what happened.

“It couldn’t have happened in a better place,” said Schmidt, who said later learned Athens Regional Medical Center is the top cardiac facility in the area. “If this would have happened at the hotel or someplace else, I would have been a goner.”

Today, the only difference in his life is that he doesn’t run and feels minor chest pain near the surgical incision.

He walks with his wife, Jessie, in Humphrey Coliseum to maintain his cardiovascular regimen.

He doesn’t enjoy walking; he’s a runner, accustomed to logging four to five miles at a time. To Schmidt, walking takes more physical effort than running. After all, he has run 84,000 miles since he started keeping a log during his freshman year of high school, dating back 44 years.

As mundane as walking is, it’ll have to do for now.

“We did two-and-a-half miles yesterday and the pain he’s still experiencing in his chest is probably because it’s still inflamed,” Jessie said. “I think once that subsides to a level where he can accommodate it he’ll get back to running.”

His pacemaker is set for a heart rate of 200, so doctors are comfortable he can return to running full time. The defibrillator in his chest will provide the electrical jolt needed if he goes into cardiac arrest again.

“They say it’ll feel like a mule kicked me in the chest,” Schmidt said.