First Aid Corps

A potential life-threatening disaster was averted Wednesday afternoon at the North Dodge Athletic Club thanks to some quick thinking and one of the club’s defibrillators.

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Local attorney and former state representative Joe Johnston, 73, was playing basketball at the club when he collapsed shortly after noon, a result of a heart issue doctors determined was not a heart attack.

Club manager Skyler Moss, who was playing basketball in a nearby court, ran over when he heard shouting. He grabbed one of the club’s two defibrillators, machines that send electric shocks to the heart to re-establish its rhythm.

Once the machine gave the clear for the first shock, he delivered it and got no response. After a few minutes later, he delivered a second shock — still no response. When paramedics arrived about two minutes after being called, they delivered a third shock. This time, they detected a pulse.

“The shocking thing was he was laying on the ground dead for three or four minutes,” said Randy Larson, who has known Johnston for three decades and helped give him CPR Wednesday. “There was no pulse, no breathing. He was just laying there and people were working on him, but he was making no motions of any kind. To be awake and then talking 20 minutes later, that’s incredible. It’s a great testament to the power of the defibrillator and a fast emergency response.”

Johnston still was in the hospital Wednesday night in good condition, Larson said. He said Johnston has a history of heart problems and had heart surgery a few years ago.

“We always have called him a medical miracle anyway because, you know, he’s playing basketball at 73,” Larson said, “and this isn’t half court basketball, this is regular basketball with 20-year-olds. He’s just an amazing guy.”

Steve Moss, the club’s owner, said it’s not the first time the defibrillator has been used in an emergency situation. Since the club got its first defibrillator in 1999, at least one other man suffering from a heart attack was saved.

Unfortunately, before they got the machine, another man in his late 70s did not. Steve Moss said that man collapsed while playing racquetball and the rescue crew didn’t make it in time to save him.

“That’s one of the reasons we fought like hell to get it,” he said.

They’ve since gotten a second defibrillator, Steve Moss said.

The Johnson County Early Defibrillation Task Force has worked for years to get defibrillators installed in public places around the city. The task force succeeded in getting them placed in more law enforcement vehicles than before, including the sheriff’s office and the North Liberty Police Department.

Johnson County Sheriff Lonny Pulkrabek, a member of the task force, said that when someone goes into cardiac arrest, their chances of dying increase by 10 percent for every minute that goes by without access to a defibrillator.

“There’s a huge value to it,” Pulkrabek said of having the machines in public places.

Parksville’s 82-year-old Bernie Diakow, a defenceman with the Parksville Panters, was finishing his shift on ice and going to the bench when he collapsed with a heart attack on Sept. 21 at the Oceanside Arena.

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The four employees – Clayton Bannatyne, Mike Chestnut, John Marcellus and Charles Stockand – are operational employees at the arena.

Ambulance’s Vital Link award. “We were having a rare staff meeting when we heard that Bernie had collapsed,” said Chestnut.

“We rushed to Bernie and he was grey with no vital signs. It was our first time using the defibrillator kit. We checked his airway, did chest compressions and the automated external defibrillator told us to give him one shock. We did everything we could to keep him alive. It was a long and intense 10 minutes before his colour started to come back.”

Ironically, Diakow launched the campaign on behalf of the Parksville Golden Oldies Sports Association to have defibrillators placed in the arena.

He would like to see the life-saving devices and trained staff at all recreational facilities, including the curling club.

“There’s a method to his madness,” said Marcellus. “Since Bernie, we’ve been able to resuscitate two other senior hockey players.” Diakow can’t recall much about the heart attack.

“All I know is what my teammates told me and that’s that I was going to the bench after a shift and I just collapsed.”

He said he was feeling fine before collapsing and had no previous symptoms that concerned him regarding his heart.

Following his collapse, his teammates pulled him to the corridor behind the bench and that’s when Bannatyne, Chestnut, Marcellus and Stockand arrived.

Marcellus said it was the first time the RDN staff had used the defibrillator on a person.

“We had received a lot of training and CPR first aid but when we saw how Bernie looked all nerves disappeared,” Marcellus said.

“Our training just took over.” Still regaining his strength, Diakow hopes to rejoin his hockey team next season.

“I really thank those guys and my teammates because without them I wouldn’t be here.”

The Valentine’s workday for Machacek, a general mechanic at Alcoa, was no different from any day in the past 15 years of his career.

Mike Machacek the Survivor

He was on a break and began to feel heart burn. One of his good friends, Brian Baros, was with him to make sure he was OK.

Machacek was not too worried, but something did not feel right. Then his head fell back and his heart went into lethal heart arrhythmia, or a deadly heart rhythm.

That is when Alcoa’s emergency response team hooked him to the defibrillator.

“I do remember them saying, ‘clear’,” he said. “But they said I was still out.”

Seventy-one minutes passed from the time the Calhoun County Emergency Medical Services arrived at the plant to when the blockage was cleared by a cardiologist at the Citizens cath lab.

That is well within the 90-minute time frame set by American College of Cardiology to have the blockage cleared, Stone said.

Stone was impressed at Alcoa’s emergency response team’s speedy action.

“The team’s efforts definitely saved a life,” said Allen Baxter, Alcoa’s health and safety manager. “This is what I call making the ultimate difference.”

On Friday, Machacek was ready to go home, looking as healthy as prior to his heart attack.

“I’m going to have to be really cautious on these holidays,” he said laughing.

Looking back, Machacek said he feels really fortunate. Had he been up four stories working, he may have not made it.

Even then, he never thought he could have a heart attack. He’s always had a slightly elevated blood pressure, but he never expected what happened on Valentine’s Day.

“It kind of really shocked me,” he said. “I come from a bullheaded family. We always say, ‘It ain’t gonna happen to you…’ and boom, it did.”

The Machaceks did not have any Valentine’s Day plans, but Stone said the couple received the best gift ever – a functioning heart.

For now, Machacek is going to take several weeks off work. He’s going to be more conscientious about his eating and exercise habits.

If there is anything Machacek has learned, he said, it’s something rather simple.

“50 is not that old,” he said smiling. “You’ve got a lot of life left in you.”

Cardinal Valley Elementary School janitor Bill Ward was the first person to ever need the automatic external defibrillator or AED in a Fayette County School. He says his heart attack happened while working in the cafeteria on November 2, 2009 when he was 46 years old.

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“I felt like I had the flu or something,” Ward explained while describing that day.

“Didn’t have chest pain or anything. Just dropped while I was working in the cafeteria.”

Ward continued “They did CPR and couldn’t get anything And I was starting to change colors. The staff did a wonder taking care of me Making sure I’m still here.”

Ward, affectionately known as Mr. Bill around in the halls of the school, says his favorite job now is checking on the AED—making sure the battery always reads “ok.”

“Check it once a month,” he said while pointing out the battery.

School leaders say there’s one AED in every elementary and middle school, and three per high school. They were installed six years ago at a cost of $151,000.

Ward says they’re priceless.

“I think it’s a really wise investment,” he joked. “But if you need it, it’s a godsend.”

A woman who was apparently having a heart attack at the Duluth International Airport on Sunday, was saved thanks to people next to her and an automated external defibrillator.

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The airport said that the woman appeared to faint, while standing in the security screening line.

A nurse practitioner and an EMT who were off duty, were on hand and jumped over to help.

A TSA worker grabbed the AED from the first floor, and the team was able to revive the woman.

Airport officials said that when Gold Cross responded, they said it looked like the woman’s pacemaker failed.

The 148th Fighter Wing fire department also responded. They said on Monday it appeared the woman would be OK.

The airport said she was from the Detroit area.

The airport had the AED installed in 2005.

“We have training each year. We’re glad it saved a life,” said Blaine Peterson, facilities manager.