First Aid Corps

Doug Paisley says he was simply in the right place at the right time when he helped give CPR to a man who was having a heart attack before his son’s concert Saturday at Intrust Bank Arena.

Doug Paisley the Saviour

A longtime volunteer firefighter and EMT, Paisley said he noticed an arena employee on the floor in a service hallway and performed CPR before paramedics arrived.

He was just about to use an automated external defibrillator — or AED — when paramedics took over.

“I had the AED open, ready to attach it,” Paisley said Tuesday. “I kind of backed off and let them use theirs.”

Paisley credited another arena employee with helping him assist the man. He was adamant that it was a team effort.

Cotter said paramedics “got a pulse back” and transported the man to a hospital.

“If the man’s life was saved, it was because a lot of things came together,” he said. “There’s nothing heroic about this. Heroic is when you’re standing on the front lines in Afghanistan or Iraq. … It was definitely a good thing to walk away from.”

Derek Robison, a Weymouth firefighter since 2006 and a certified emergency medical technician, 38, was watching the hockey game of his 6-year-old son, Donovan, when a man wearing hockey skates came rushing out from one of the other rinks shortly before 5 p.m. Sunday.

He was looking for a doctor.

“He said someone needed help,” Robison said.

Robison and a nurse, whose daughter plays on his son’s Weymouth Youth Hockey team, ran over to see what they could do.

“Someone said he (McCracken) had just come off the ice when he collapsed near the bench,” Robison said.

Others had gathered around retired police Lt. Joseph McCracken, 65, and were trying to help him when the unidentified nurse and Robison pitched in with their life-saving efforts.

The nurse and the firefighter used CPR to keep retired police Lt. Joseph McCracken, 65, alive with blood flowing to his heart and brain.

That’s when a pro-shop worker, Derek Benton saw what was going on, suspected the victim was suffering from a heart attack and knew the nearest defibrillator unit was across the street at the Queen Anne Nursing home. “I just bolted out the door, “said Benton. “I knew he needed the de-fib unit.”

“I put one pad on one side of his chest,” said Duxbury firefighter Jim Kittredge,” and Sharon Demio put the other pad near his heart.”

A Hingham Fire Department ambulance arrived minutes later to take McCracken to South Shore Hospital in Weymouth, where he was listed in good condition Tuesday.

Hoby Taylor, Pilgrim’s president, said McCracken has been renting ice time for men’s hockey games for many years.

“He’s a very, very nice man,” Taylor said. “It’s very rare that something like this happens.”

“I can’t say thank you enough to the people who helped my father,” said Lisa McCracken, the daughter of Joe McCracken, who had a heart attack while playing hockey over the weekend.

“We did what we were trained to do,” Robison said.

Ellen Davis, a 69-year-old Zillah grandmother and substitute schoolteacher, collapsed about 6 a.m in West Valley Walmart on Nov. 27, the busy shopping day known as Black Friday.

Almost immediately she was surrounded by help.

Off-duty nurses and firefighters who were shopping, a police officer working store security and Walmart employees all pitched in.

Some of them performed CPR.

They kept Davis alive until the ambulance arrived nine minutes later.

Her heart was revived with an electric shock en route to Yakima Valley Memorial Hospital.

One worker ran to fetch a first aid kit while other workers formed a human chain to give the rescue workers room to move.

Stephanie Pruett, a Walmart employee who performed the first chest compressions on Davis.

Some of the rescuers include :

Sgt. Mike Henne of the Yakima Police Department, who was working as private security for Walmart and performed CPR.

Tara Prescott, an off-duty Memorial Hospital registered nurse who performed CPR.

Ed Vertrees, an off-duty Yakima Training Center firefighter who performed CPR.

Sara Wisner, an off-duty registered nurse, who helped keep Davis’ airway open during CPR and helped ambulance workers keep a tight seal on a respirator bag.

As far as she can tell, Davis has fully recovered from the incident, though she has a stent in her heart and her family teases her about brain damage.

“I am just about normal as far as that goes, but that’s not saying a lot,” she said with a laugh.

She appreciated all her rescuers’ efforts, but they didn’t surprise her.

“A lot of people, more than you realize, are willing to help people in any way they can,” Davis said.

Gordon Crozier of North River went into cardiac arrest during the second period of his grandson’s Atom ‘A’ hockey game at the APM Centre.

Steve Stapleton the Saviour

Three spectators at the game quickly scooted into action.

Steve Stapleton, 59, of Charlottetown was among the impromptu trio that came to Crozier’s aid.

Trained in CPR (he had his most recent refresher course just last year), Stapleton started performing CPR after Crozier “started turning blue” and a pulse could not be found.

Stapleton did chest compressions on Crozier, a long-time friend, as another man blew air into Crozier’s lungs.

One of those who sprang to help Crozier was cameraman Steve Stepleton of CBC Charlottetown.

While Stapleton performed CPR for “what seemed likes hours” but in reality was more like five minutes, a woman named Rizpah MacPhee ran to get the rink’s defibrillator.

‘”We gave Gordon one jolt and he came around,” Stapleton said. “Then we kept administering the CPR, monitoring his breathing and watching for a pulse, and we just did that, with help from the others, until the EMS arrived and took him to hospital.”

“I don’t know if the ambulance could have got here fast enough for the person to survive, but the defibrillator did its job,” Donna Butler, APM Centre manager, said Monday.

Crozier was rushed to the Queen Elizabeth Hospital.

Wade Crozier later reported that his father was resting comfortably at the QEH. Wade offered “many thanks to all who helped out as without your help and the defibrillator at the rink, this would be a very different message.”

Stapleton, a soft-spoken and humble man, wasn’t too eager to be pegged as a hero.

“It wasn’t just me,” he said of the quick response to a life-threatening situation. I was just a part of it. And thank God Gordon is still alive. I have known Gordon for years.”

Steve Stapleton believes everybody should have CPR training.

“You hope you never have to use it but at least if something happens, you know how to use it and it could save somebody’s life,” he said.

The retired longshoreman, 85-year-old Bill Trujillo, strapped on his helmet and set out on a route he’d traveled many times.

John Heinrich the Saviour with Bill Trujillo the Survivor

There, his memory of that day stops. It picks up 20 days later, when he regained consciousness in a hospital and was told he’d suffered a heart attack, fallen off his bicycle and ultimately underwent six-way bypass surgery.

On Aug. 24, Heinrich was off-duty and traveling with his wife to Wal-Mart to buy supplies for the high school class he helps teach.

They were at the intersection of Elm Street and Mills Avenue when they saw Trujillo lying in the street, tangled in a bicycle about a block south.

They detoured and drove to the man, where Heinrich jumped out of the vehicle.

A bystander was about to move Trujillo out of the roadway, but the firefighter said to wait, in case the man had spinal injuries.

“I checked for a pulse, and he didn’t have one,” Heinrich said.

It all happened very quickly, Heinrich said, but instinct and training kicked in instantly.

He started CPR while using his cell phone to call for help. Fellow on-duty firefighters arrived with a defibrillator and used it twice before Trujillo’s heart started beating again.

“Really, all I did was keep him alive until they got here with the defibrillator,” Heinrich said.

An ambulance soon arrived and took Trujillo to Lodi Memorial Hospital. He was then transferred to Mercy Hospital in Sacramento.

Mike Trujillo noted that Heinrich’s training saved his father’s life, allowing the family to celebrate Thanksgiving today.

“He acted not only as a fireman but as a citizen,” he said. “We should probably all learn CPR.”

It all started when Leon Kogler, 78, suddenly slouched over on his side while kneeling in prayer during the church service at the Immaculate Conception Church in Sheboygan.

Leon Kogler (2nd from left) the Survivor

Those around him thought he’d fainted, but Shelley Hittman, 36, — who teaches CPR for the Red Cross and is a trained first responder — knew better.

“We took one look and said, ‘This isn’t good,’” Hittman said.

She and her husband Todd, 38, who’s a volunteer firefighter and trained EMT, performed CPR and shocked him with the church’s just-installed automated defibrillator.

Delorme, a Sheboygan firefighter, helped with CPR.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Kogler was breathing and had a heartbeat.

Kogler was later transported to Columbia St. Mary’s Hospital in Milwaukee, where he underwent bypass surgery.

“To me they’re heroes,” said Kogler, with his wife Helen, 75. “They saved my life.”

Lt. Glenn Cooney and firefighters Paul LaPointe and Mark Lockyer belong to a hockey league.

On Sept. 25, the three of them, all off duty, happened to be at the Reading Ice Arena taking advantage of a free skate session when suddenly a man collapsed on the ice, Fire Chief James Tutko said.

The guys assessed the man’s condition and accessed the defibrillator on site.

They performed CPR on the victim, who was in cardiac arrest, and administered a shock with the defibrillator, Tutko said.

“By the time the Reading firefighters got there, the man had a pulse and was breathing on his own,” Tutko said. “On Oct. 13, he was moved from the hospital to rehab.

“I think they took the training they received in the department and performed the necessary steps to keep this man alive until he could get to the hospital,” Tutko said.

About 1:15 on Sunday afternoon, several firefighters from Engine Company 35 in Harlem were parked at the corner of 124th Street and First Avenue during the New York City Marathon, when one noticed that a runner had collapsed, Lt. James Daley of Engine Company 35 said.

The firefighters weaved through the crowd of runners to the other side of the street, where they used a defibrillator to revive 51-year-old runner Michael Goulding of Fort Worth.

“It took about two or three minutes to get the heart beating,” Daley said in a telephone interview.

Daley said the firefighters were not assigned to monitor the marathon and were taking a break from their work.

“There weren’t any personnel from the marathon on that side of the street — it was just us,” he said.

Runners were stopped for a few seconds when the ambulance arrived to pick up Goulding, Daley said.

“By the time he was put into the ambulance, he was talking,” Daley recalled.

In a telephone interview, Goulding’s wife, Jan, said her husband had never run a marathon but had run a half-marathon. She said he did not have a heart condition and had recently lost several pounds.

“He called me from his cellphone at Mile 18 while he was running and said he was tired, but I bet they were all tired at that point,” Jan Goulding said. “The next thing I knew, he called me from the hospital.”

John Culshaw, aged 72, of Lakeside, has been running for the club since 1979 and was competing at an event in Nuneaton when he fell ill.

He had just finished sixth in the men’s over-50s speed walk when he collapsed and his heart stopped.

A fireman and doctor from a nearby club rushed to his aid and administered CPR before a defibrillator was fetched from Pingles Leisure Centre.

John told the Herald: “Basically, I’m lucky to be alive. Apparently the arteries to my heart were blocked. I was diagnosed with angina in 1997, but had no symptoms and it did not need treatment.”

The incident happened on August 12. John was rushed to Coventry’s University Hospital where he underwent a triple heart bypass.

He is now recovering at home, walking three miles a day and doctors say he should be back competing within four months.

He said: “My vest had to be cut from me when I collapsed, and the club have bought me a new one – so they are expecting me back!”

Justin Bryan Scott was working for Essential Energy Service Inc. of Clayton, N.C., to install new, energy-efficient lights in city schools.

He was on Athens High School gym’s second level at the top of some bleachers about 6:30 p.m. working on a light ballast when he was shocked, according to Powers and reports on the emergency scanner. He reportedly sat down on a bleacher and then collapsed.

Scott was in full cardiac arrest when Station 1 firefighters arrived, Athens Fire Chief Danny Southard said Tuesday.

They began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation and used an automatic external defibrillator to shock Scott’s heart.

Their efforts restored Scott’s breathing and heart rate. Paramedics from Athens-Limestone Hospital then arrived and continued treatment. He was stabilized at Athens-Limestone Hospital then flown by MedFlight helicopter to Huntsville Hospital.

Southard credited the four first responders — Battalion Chief Mike Clem, Captain David Ledford, driver Neil Gooch and firefighter Aaron Harper — with reviving Scott.