First Aid Corps

It was a little after 10:30 p.m. on a Monday night, July 12, Alana Nicolson, Nathan Dart and Mark Snider were at Derek Wilson’s Winston Boulevard home. Nicolson and Dart, who are dating, were watching a movie in one room. Snider was in his own room, reading.

Derek Wilson (center) the Survivor

Wilson’s not sure what he was doing — his memory, from a day before to three days after his collapse, is gone. But whatever it was had taken him into the hallway, where he dropped without saying a word.

Dart and Nicolson heard a thud. Snider heard a strange snorting sound, some of the last gasps Wilson would take before his breaths disappeared with his pulse.

As Snider relayed information to the 911 dispatcher, Nicolson checked Wilson’s vitals. No breaths. No pulse.

It had been a few years since she’d learned cardiopulmonary resuscitation as a lifeguard. But her actions were instinctive.

“He’s a friend who I’ve known forever,” Nicolson says. “I’m not going to wait.”

So while Snider spoke to the dispatcher, and Dart checked outside for emergency workers, ready to wave them in, Nicolson pumped Wilson’s chest.

She kept up the compressions, stopping to check on the vital signs that seemed to return, only to vanish again.

When Cambridge firefighters arrived, they took over Wilson’s care, using a defibrillator twice inside the home. Paramedics defibrillated him once again in the ambulance.

Relatives were warned he might have suffered permanent brain damage. None was found.

His parents never left his side while he was in hospital. Twelve days later, he was released. He’s recovering at his mother’s house now, regaining his strength and counting the weeks until he begins classes at York University, studying human rights.

“Mark and I don’t have CPR training,” says Dart. “Believe me, it’s a priority at this point . . . It should be right up there with being able to read, as far as I’m concerned.”

15-year old ALISON has little recollection of the days preceding her heart attack. She said she woke up on July 20 feeling her “normal self.” What happened next she does not recall, but, her mother does.

Alison Roney the Survivor

Deborah Roney was in the computer room in her house at about 1:15 p.m. when she heard gagging sounds coming from the kitchen. She called out to her daughter, “Alison, is that you or the dog?”

When she received no response, Deborah Roney made her way into the kitchen. She found Alison on the floor, gasping for breath.

Deborah Roney called on her CPR training and began trying to save her daughter’s life with cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

Deborah Roney’s 9-1-1 Fairfax County call came in at 1:25 p.m., and an ambulance left the Vienna fire station at 1:26 p.m. It, and a fire truck, pulled up at 1:29 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., EMTs were in the house. Three Vienna police cars responded, as well. When the rescue team arrived, Deborah Roney entrusted Alison’s life to them.

“The real story is that they [the Vienna EMTs] got here so quickly and did such a great job,” said Jack Roney.

Alison was intubated with fluid lines and blood draw lines within minutes. The Roneys later found out that Alison was shocked twice with a defibrillator, once at the house and again in the emergency vehicle.

With IV lines already in-place, Alison spent little time in the emergency room. The treatment Alison got at home and en route saved precious minutes in the emergency room at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She was transported shortly after arrival to her room in the intensive care unit.

A staffer from the emergency room stopped by Alison’s room a day or two later. Jack Roney said the woman seemed to be “in awe” of the care that Alison received by the EMTs.

“It’s not so much about us as it is about the efforts of the fire and rescue service,” said Jack Roney. “Their incredible professionalism saved our daughter’s life.”

Alison Roney spent nine days in ICU, much of the time under sedatives. She recalls very little of her whole experience. Her first ingestible meal, spaghetti, came four days after her heart attack. Her mother said she ate and she remembers that. In the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, Deborah Roney was called “the mom who saved her daughter’s life.”

Alison Roney left Fairfax Hospital with a defibrillator implant. The life-saving device, known as an ICD, is a small battery-powered electrical impulse generator. When the implanted defibrillator detects arrhythmia, it sends a jolt of electricity to the heart.

“I feel good, normal,” said Alison, a rising sophomore in George C. Marshall High School’s International Baccalaureate program. “Doesn’t seem like any of this happened, except for the scar. I just expect to be alive.”

A leak from a propane barbecue grill sparked some trouble in Middle Valley.

The homeowner called 911 and then used a hose to snuff out the flames that spread to his deck. Dallas Bay volunteer firefighters arrived a few minutes later to finish the job.

Once things cooled down the homeowner and firefighters were outside talking about the fire when the homeowner collapsed, falling flat on his face. He stopped breathing and went into cardiac arrest.

As Hamilton County paramedics were called to the scene firefighters immediately began CPR and grabbed their automated external defibrillator.

“They pulled the automated external defibrillator and used it on this patient in the first two minutes which actually saved this gentleman’s life,” Amy Maxwell, spokesperson for Hamilton County Emergency Services said.

As the AED literally talked the firefighters through a life-saving process, and shocked the man’s heart, he started breathing again.

“It just so happens it was just a lucky turn of events that Dallas Bay was actually there when this gentleman went down at the time,” Maxwell said.

The victim is recovering at Erlanger Medical Center and we’re told he will have surgery in the next day or so to correct some blockages in his heart that he didn’t even know he had.

While finishing up a report in the basement of the Gilford Police Station On the evening of June 28 Monday, O’Neill was dispatched to the Keith residence for a man who was unresponsive and not breathing.

Arriving at the house, he got the first aid kit along with the automatic electronic defibrillator out of the car’s truck.

Walking inside the house, he came across the adult laying on his back in a screened-in-portch with another person on the phone with 9-1-1.

This man laying on the floor was motionless and was identified as Rowland Keith.

“Just looking at him I did a quick assessment and it was clear I had to put the AED on him,” said O’Neill.

With family being a priority to him in his own life, O’Neill wanted to do all in his power to help Keith, but also help his family.

Deputy Chief Kevin Keenan was also on scene. With time meaning the difference between life and death, O’Neill told Keenan to cut off Keith’s shirt and proceeded to place the defibrillator pads on Keith’s body.

O’Neill said as soon as he turn the unit on, it advised him to shock Keith immediately, something he was not expecting.

“That completely took me off-guard because I’ve put the unit on people before and it assesses the patient for a few seconds first,” said O’Neill. “It told me to shock him again, at which point I told his son to let go of his father’s hand and made sure I was clear and I shocked him.”

After delivering the shock, the system advised O’Neill to begin cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) until other emergency personnel arrived.

The Laconia Fire Department was on scene first followed by the Gilford Fire Department which was on another call when this incident occurred. O’Neill said it was the greatest feeling to see a dozen firefighters on scene helping, but even greater was seeing Keith beginning to move and function on his own.

“Little by little he just started to come back to life on his own,” said O’Neill. “By the time they put him on the stretcher to bring him out to the ambulance, he was moving his arms and talking. It was awesome to see it come a complete one-eighty.”

“I’m just thankful for the way it played out and he did come back,” he said. “He doing good now. He was released from the hospital the next day.”

“CPR alone wouldn’t have been able to do what the AED did,” said O’Neill.

Thomas Thorburn sipped the last of his minestrone soup just before it happened.

As he sat at the kitchen table, a heart attack gripped his 70-year-old body. It was sudden and painless. Mr. Thorburn fell off his chair and stopped breathing.

“I dropped dead on my kitchen floor,” he said.

His frightened wife called 911, and within 3 minutes Police Chief Otto F. Rhode Jr. and Officer Duncan Baum were there. They performed CPR and used a defibrillator from a police cruiser to try to revive him.

“On the third shock, he took a breath,” Chief Rhode said.

The Rescue Squad soon arrived and took Mr. Thorburn to a hospital.

The next thing he remembers is waking up at UMass Memorial Medical Center — University Campus in Worcester, about three days after the May 14 heart attack.

“They brought me back,” Mr. Thorburn said of the Berlin emergency workers. “I’m one lucky guy.”

Mr. Thorburn, who has a history of heart problems, is also a former chief of the Rescue Squad.

He and his wife, Carol, say health problems are just a part of life that must be dealt with. But Mr. Thorburn is taking one preventive step: “I’m never eating soup again,” he said with a chuckle.

Gerald Paddock’s 57-year-old heart stopped beating on Dec. 4 as he turned in for bed beside his wife, Jeanne, at their Field Pond Road home.

Gerald Paddock (right) the Survivor

She remembers calling 911 and screaming at a dispatcher, “Don’t bother, he’s dead.”

But two police officers arrived quickly, performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation and were able to shock Paddock back to life with a defibrillator.

He took a long road to recovery, but now has a working ticker again and is in good health – just “skinnier and a little stiffer,” as his wife says.

“I feel good,” Paddock said yesterday while he and his family met the two officers who resuscitated him, Robbie Tusino and rookie Ryan Maher.

Paddock doesn’t remember what happened to him, and can’t even recall having celebrated Thanksgiving the week before his medical emergency.

Tusino, who is also a paramedic, is the only Milford officer to carry a defibrillator in his squad car.

At about 10 p.m. on Dec. 4, Tusino had the new officer Maher with him for field training when they were called to the Paddocks’ home. It was Maher’s first time doing CPR to save a life.

Tusino said the key was when he used the defibrillator on Paddock.

“That actually got your heart started again,” the officer told him.

An ambulance with AMR paramedics then arrived with drugs Paddock needed, and he was taken to Milford Regional Medical Center and then to UMass Memorial Medical Center in Worcester.

Jeanne Paddock, who teaches fifth grade in Marlborough, recalled her husband not being there for Christmas, New Year’s and their son Steven’s 25th birthday while he was in the coma at the hospital.

But the family recognized he’ll be around for future holidays and special events, and that’s what counts.

Fortunately for Catskill resident James Brennan of Hudson Avenue, it took less than four minutes for emergency responders to arrive after his collapse.

EMTs Rob, Michael & Cory the Saviours

At 6:10 p.m., Brennan’s wife called 911, reaching Catskill Police Department dispatcher Erika Ruger, and Catskill Police Officer Steven Deitz was dispatched to the residence at 6:12 p.m. and began CPR by 6:14 p.m.

Catskill Ambulance Emergency Medical Technician Cory Birk, who was off-duty and visiting a friend only a block away on High Street, overheard the radio communications on his friend’s police scanner and responded to the scene.

He quickly utilized the Automatic Electronic Defibrillator, which each Catskill Police patrol car equips, and was able to revive Brennan, who is in his 60s, according to EMTs.

“When someone puts their professional responsibilities beyond their own personal needs, it is beyond invaluable when it comes to saving someone’s life,” said Town Supervisor Peter Markou, who commended Birk with the first-ever citation for outstanding performance by a first responder.

Catskill EMT Michael Eisshofer of East Greenbush and EMT-Intermediate Rob Brooks of Purling were also commended by the board for their service in the incident.

Eisshofer and Brooks responded and performed further CPR to stabilize Brennan.

“He was touch and go for a while there,” said Brooks, who noted he became unresponsive during treatment.

“If we weren’t there for another two minutes,” Brooks said, “he wouldn’t have had a chance.”

“A life was saved because of their service,” Markou said of the responders.

“I just did my job,” said Birk.

“They don’t feel that they’ve done anything special,” said Catskill Ambulance Administrator Matthew Leibowitz, “but of course, whenever you save a life it’s special.”

“This is what we do,” said Brooks. “It’s special in that there are not many situations where they are actually able to walk out of the hospital.”

47-year-old Jackie Shashaty suffered a heart attack around 11:30 p.m., on Saturday, Jan. 9, collapsed on her bedroom floor, and began to have a seizure.

Shashaty’s boyfriend, Cedar Grove Police Officer Scott Moody, was inside her house, heard the fall, and raced into the bedroom where he discovered Shashaty had no pulse.

Her heart had stopped beating.

Moody performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Shashaty, a mother of two, and called 911.

Moody also called Shashaty’s sister, Marge Quirk, a Jersey City school nurse, who lives just up the road from Shashaty.

Officers and emergency personnel responded to Shashaty’s Rugby Road home in a matter of minutes.

By the time she arrived on the scene, Quirk was watching members of Cedar Grove’s Ambulance and Rescue Squad shock Shashaty’s heart with a defibrillator.

“I knew she was not alive at that moment,” said Quirk.

Shashaty said her heart was shocked a total of six times by the defibrillator before it slowly began to beat and a faint pulse returned.

Cedar Grove Ambulance and Rescue Squad members transported Shashaty to Mountainside Hospital in Montclair.

A few days after having the implantation of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator, Shashaty was released from the hospital. She is now recovering at her home along with the help of her two children.

Although she had a busy schedule on Jan. 9, Shashaty said she has no recollection of anything that occurred before or after the heart attack.

“I didn’t see anything,” said Shashaty after being revived. “I don’t have a recollection of anything.”

When asked if she had a message to the emergency personnel who helped resuscitate her, Shashaty said, “Thank you for saving my life. My kids still have their mom.”

Lewis Gooden was visiting friends on Old East Road on Dec. 4.

Karen & David Rodham the Saviours

After visiting and having a cup of tea with Karen and David Rodham, he got up to leave and suddenly collapsed, suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.

Mrs. Rodham said they were all standing together so her husband was able to catch Mr. Gooden before he hit the floor and she immediately called 911. “It was seconds that he could’ve been out the door,” she said.

The 911 operator in Laconia walked the couple through the new CPR format, keeping Mrs. Rodham calm on the phone. The operator had her count compressions out loud while Mr. Rodham actually performed the 600 chest compressions as directed. Then help started to arrive.

“Thank God for Rick, he came walking through the door right at 600,” Mrs. Rodham said. Officer Rick Grima of the Whitefield police used the AED (automated external defibrillator) from his cruiser and was able to successfully shock Mr. Gooden’s heart.

The officer, a former EMT himself, admitted it was the first time he’d ever had to shock anyone. “I guess you did a good job,” Mr. Gooden quipped, laughing as the two men spoke.

Mr. Roy said he doesn’t remember any of the events of Dec. 4, but he’s thankful for everyone who helped.

After being transported to Weeks Medical Center in Whitefield, he was flown to Catholic Medical Center in Manchester and now sports an internal defibrillator to regulate his heart.

Mr. Rodham applauded the efforts of both Lancaster and Whitefield EMS in saving his friend. Among the responders were experienced EMTs, teen Explorers and the Fire Chiefs themselves, all of who played a role in helping to keep Mr. Roy alive en route to the hospital.

It was during the early evening hours of Jan. 27, when Officer Jeremy Tetreault and Sgt. John Wasson were out on patrol and answered a call reporting a female having difficulty breathing.

Jill Heap (center) the Survivor

Wasson and Tetreault immediately realized that Jill Heap’s condition had worsened to the point where she was not breathing, had no pulse and no blood pressure.

Using a portable defibrillator from one of the police cruisers, the officers began the process that would ultimately save Heap’s life.

“I began the CPR process,” Wasson said.

“The sergeant gave her some breaths while I did the compressions,” Tetreault said.

Amidst all the activity, Tetreault was tending to Heap’s husband and two daughters, and two dogs, advising them to go to a neighbor’s home while the officers did their work.

“We began the process until the Fire Department arrived and took over,” Wasson said. “It was a joint effort and we saved a life. We’re all ‘first responders,’ and we work together,” Wasson said.

“I was proud and energized,” Wasson said, when asked how he felt after the successful teamwork paid off. “It puts you right back on top again.”

And on top again is just where the Heap family finds itself today. While Jill Heap has little or no recollection of what happened in her family room that day, her husband is quick to praise both police officers, as well as the Fire Department, which provides the CPR training.

“All the (responders) were very, very professional,” Derek Heap said, “professional and kind, just outstanding.”

Katelyn Heap, an eighth-grader at Seabrook Middle School, said she was “terrified” when her mother became ill.

“I feel grateful that they jumped right into action,” Katelyn said.

“I was very petrified, very scared,” said her sister Brooke, a fourth grader at Seabrook Elementary School. “I’m grateful to the Seabrook Fire Department.”

Jill Heap said she feels fine now, and that she has had a defibrillator inserted into her body.