First Aid Corps

The day after the July floods, Terry Lee entered the Germantown store and never made it to the sump pumps.

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Lee says, “When I hit the floor. I just totally blacked out. Don’t know what happened, and they took over from there. They have their defibrillator in the store here. The went through their code blue.”

Manager Tom Pfeifer, and his trained staff first performed the newest recommended heart attack technique called “Heart Saver”.

“Paramedic service, they came here in 5-6 minutes. We had minimal time with you initially until they came.”

In those minutes Lee flat lined, which led to him being shocked by an automated external defibrillator.

Three-year-old Jaden Miller was enjoying a day with his parents at Rapids Water Park on July 4, in Riviera Beach, when, without any warning, his heart suddenly stopped.

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Jaden had just come down from the slide when the first signs appeared. “He’s was on my shoulder,” said his father. “I didn’t even know.”

“He grabbed his head like this,” the mother said, pulling at her hair. “You know, like when somebody’s having a stroke, and his eyes rolled back, and he just passed out.”

After suffering the excitement of the water ride, park officials “ran him to first aid,” explained Tina Hatcher, spokesperson for Rapids Water Park.

“They immediately started CPR. We have EMT on staff, so as soon as they started CPR, they had already gone to get the AED [Automated External Defibrillator] and shocked him.”

“They were trying to call his name, but he was unconscious,” said the boy’s mother. “He’s out of it. They couldn’t find any pulse, anything.”

“The AED was put on, and it shocked the heart back to normal,” said Dr. Ming-Lon Young, at Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital.

Jaden was moved from St. Mary’s Hospital in West Palm to Hollywood Memorial Hospital’s Joe DiMaggio Children’s Hospital where doctors implanted a pacemaker-like device that will shock his heart whenever he needs it. “So the patient’s very lucky to be alive,” said Young. “With treatment he can have a normal life, but he will need support.”

“He’s strong,” said his mother, Neffretti Miller. “He’s strong. He’s a good boy.”

Last month Lindstrom was ringing up a customer in the pro shop when someone called to report that a golfer was suffering a heart attack on the course.

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Lindstrom said he immediately remembered there was an automated external defibrillator at the bar, so he grabbed that and headed to the fallen golfer while another worker called paramedics.

“He wasn’t conscious when I got there,” Lindstrom recalled. “He wasn’t responding to anything. He was breathing faint breaths and making a moaning sound.”

The unidentified man was a regular who often played at Maple Meadows, Lindstrom said. When he arrived at the fourth hole, the stricken man’s brother was performing CPR. Lindstrom pulled out to the defibrillator and followed the instructions.

“The first thing it says to you when you open it up is ‘stay calm,’” Lindstrom said. “I didn’t feel like I was freaking out or anything, but other people may have something different to say.”

He attached the machine to the man and a shock was applied.

Lindstrom said the machine appeared to be readying for a second shock when it stopped itself. The man’s heart rate appeared to stabilize after the first shock, and soon Wood Dale Fire Protection District paramedics arrived to take the man to Alexian Brothers Hospital in Elk Grove Village.

“The guy’s brother called the next day to say thank you and he said his brother was in stable condition,” Lindstrom said, “But neither of them have been back since, so we don’t know how he’s doing.”.

County of Simcoe Paramedic Services responded to a call for assistance at the Nottawasaga Inn – Centre Ice Arena, Alliston after a 44-year old man collapsed after playing hockey.

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Staff came immediately to his aid performing CPR to revive the man and called 911.

An Automated External Defibrillator was used and the man was revived.

Paramedics took over the life-saving measures and transported the man to a local sent to Southlake Hospital, Newmarket for cardiac care. Reports claim that the man is now recovering.

It was just a normal Tuesday on June 8 for Buzzetta. He was at the front desk of Gold’s Gym, watching customers come in, before he was pulled away to a man sitting lifeless on a leg-lifting machine.

Josh Buzzetta & Joe Perry the Saviours

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Ray sat there slumped and was unresponsive.

At 9:30 a.m., the shocking developments put Buzzetta quickly into saving mode, he said.

Quickly checking Ray’s pulse and not finding one, Buzzetta realized he needed to do CPR. With help from friends Joe Perry and Jason Broyer, Buzzetta grabbed the gym’s defibrillator and called 911.

“Everything was just very fast,” he said. “I was in shock like everyone else.”

After giving Ray two sets of CPR, the three rescuers hooked up the defibrillator.

“People stepped up and there was no hesitation,” Buzzetta said. “We just jumped right in.”

And after one shock, Roy gasped for air, Buzzetta said. After finding a faint pulse, paramedics arrived on scene.

Ray was rushed to Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital where he was stabilized. From there, he was transferred to Stanford Hospital on Wednesday.

“They told us we saved his life,” Buzzetta said. “I was trained and I put it to use.”

“If it wasn’t for them, he wouldn’t have lived through this,” Hoff said. “I can’t express how thankful I am.”

“People have come in almost everyday to thank us and tell us we are heroes,” Buzzetta said. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

Buzzetta doesn’t see himself as a hero, just someone doing what he is supposed to do.

“We are not heroes – we were just at the right place at the right time.” He said. “We are just blessed.”

District Court Officer Richard Fielding dashed out of the court foyer and around to the Washington Street parking lot where he found a woman crying over Travis Buckless, 25, who lay sprawled and unconscious on the asphalt.

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“He was not breathing and turning blue. I thought he was dead,” said Fielding, who immediately began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation to Buckless.

Richard Fielding (right) the Saviour

Court officers Joseph Piknick and Susan Ruiz quickly joined Fielding and prepared to use defibrillator equipment to revive Buckless.

Chief Court Officer John Nerich also ran to the lot and used an “ambu” breathing aid device on Buckless.

“We continued with CPR until Lynn Fire and Rescue came,” Fielding said.

As he walked off to an ambulance for a precautionary trip to the hospital, a firefighter pointed to Fielding and told Buckless, “You should thank that guy.” Buckless obliged.

Fielding, a nine-year court security veteran with six years service in Lynn, discounted his role in the rescue, preferring to credit co-workers.

“It was a team effort.”

It was around 10:25 a.m. on Saturday at the R.J. Kennedy Memorial Arena in Cumberland and Roch Leduc, Ottawa paramedic superintendent, was waiting for his wife to arrive when a 20-year-old man collapsed on the playing surface.

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The (game) became all quiet suddenly,” said Leduc. “I saw the individual on the ground and I figured maybe he had tripped or some-thing.”

He said 10 to 12 long seconds went by and still the man wasn’t moving. That’s when his focus became squarely on the downed player. I thought to myself, ‘OK, now get up,’ but he didn’t.”

One of the other players waved for help and Leduc jumped from his seat. As he got closer, it became apparent there was a serious problem.

“When I put him on his back, I noticed he had no pulse, he wasn’t breathing and so I started doing chest compression.”

As he was performing CPR, someone went to the rink attendant, who ran over with the arena’s defibrillator.

I grabbed the package from her, opened it up and placed the pads on the man. We delivered a shock and did CPR for another minute or so. The machine automatically analyzed the situation and delivered a second shock.

We carried on and then he started blinking his eyes and moaning and groaning, so I stopped and checked for a pulse. He was breathing on his own and had a good pulse.”

Leduc said as much as four minutes might have passed before the man breathed again.

It was close.” As if the patient wasn’t already lucky enough to have a paramedic in the arena, Leduc was only there because his wife was running a little late. I was waiting 10 minutes for my wife to arrive, otherwise I wouldn’t have been there at all.”

By the time an advanced care paramedic unit arrived, the man was awake and talking.

He was taken to hospital, where his status was upgraded from life-threatening condition to stable condition.

Ross White, the manager of the Stephenville Dome, was sitting in his office doing some paperwork when he heard the alarm go off on the defibrillator cabinet and went to a window that overlooks the ice and noticed everyone gathered by the players’ box.

Ross White the Saviour

He immediately left his office and on the way down met Dave Boudreau, an employee at the arena, and told him to follow. They went over to the bench and that’s where this man was lying on the floor with Monty Drake and Brian Roberts, two of the hockey players, doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on him.

“They told me what had happened, that the man had collapsed after getting off the ice and saying he wasn’t feeling so well, so I checked for breathing and a pulse, and not finding either, I got ready to use the automated external defibrillator on him,” he said.

This device basically tells you what to do according to White, so once the paddles were attached the machine informed him the man had no pulse and wasn’t breathing and to stand clear and get ready to shock him.

White said with this all done he pressed the button and the man jolted up and immediately regained consciousness. He said he only had to shock him once.

With a crowd gathered around it was difficult to hear the machine and he said it was great that Boudreau was repeating everything the machine had to say to him.

He said it was shortly after the ambulance arrived and the man was still conscious and brought to the Sir Thomas Roddick Hospital, where he has been since.

“It didn’t really feel like I had done anything extraordinary, but the more people talk about it the more I realize how close we were to losing him,” he said. I hope I never have to do it again, but it’s good to know the defibrillator is there if we need it.”

“I probably wouldn’t have said it before, but now after using the defibrillator — yes, it’s a very big deal when you see it save a person’s life,” White said.

Carpentersville resident Tom Malinger had walked about three-quarters of a mile on the elliptical machine on the morning of Feb. 21 at the Dundee Township Park District’s recreation center.

He started to feel dizzy, so he stopped. In a split second, Malinger’s heart stopped. He collapsed, hitting his head on the gym floor.

Those who witnessed his collapse said Malinger “keeled over” but was conscious and speaking before he blacked out.

A flight attendant, recreation center employee, part-time firefighter and a fellow gym user rushed to Malinger’s aid.

Debra Zeigler, a flight attendant, used the Automated External Defibrillator, which got Malinger’s heart going.

Keri Fowler, who was working out near Malinger, rushed to dial 911.

Others helped, too, including Craig Lauer, a part-time Carpentersville firefighter and Leslie Kowalski, a park district employee.

“Thank God for the people who were there to help that day who knew what they were doing,” Malinger said. “I am very grateful for that.”

When the ambulance arrived, the responding officers told Malinger’s wife, Barb, that the AED had saved her husband’s life. Without it, they told her, he would have died before the ambulance arrived.

He regained consciousness momentarily in the ambulance on the way to Sherman Hospital in Elgin.

“The response was so quick,” Barb told Carpentersville trustees last week. “Without the AED he wouldn’t be here today.”

On Wednesday, county firefighters received a call about a 75-year-old man who had gone into cardiac arrest at the fitness center of the Heritage Harbour Community Lodge just outside Annapolis.

He walked into the facility shortly after noon on Wednesday. He was standing near the fitness center talking with someone when his eyes rolled back in his head and he collapsed, said general manager Byron “Barney” Calvert.

The building’s alarm was sounded and American Pool workers Bob Timmick, Brooks Wedeking and Tyrell Silver rushed to the victim.

Wedeking used the defibrillator and Silver helped him with the device and gave the man CPR.

Timmick helped get the patient on his back and later his side, when he began to breathe.

When firefighters arrived, he was alert with a red face and an elbow that was bleeding from his fall, Calvert said.

Firefighters then transported the man to Anne Arundel Medical Center in Parole.

“They saved his life,” said Division Chief Michael Cox, a county Fire Department spokesman. “The importance of AEDs in the public domain cannot be stressed enough. The chances of survival are greatly improved (when) automated external defibrillators are immediately available when someone collapses.”