First Aid Corps

The importance of defibrillators in public places was highlighted when a man’s heart was restarted after he collapsed in Haverfordwest last Friday – the first time the town centre’s machine has been used.

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An 80-year-old man suffered a suspected heart attack and stopped breathing outside the Cwm Deri Vineyard shop but thanks to Riverside Shopping Centre worker Mike Davies’ first aid training – and a well placed defibrillator – he made it to hospital alive.

Haverfordwest has a defibrillator, located at Wimpey, provided by the Welsh Assembly, in conjunction with Health Commission Wales and the Welsh Ambulance Service in 2006.

Mike, along with other shop workers were trained in the use of the electric shock machines, often vital to restarting someone’s heart, by the Welsh Ambulance Service.

Time is of the essence for heart attack victims.

Early treatment, like that provided by Mike, who was helped by a retired nurse who was nearby, can mean the difference between life and death.

Mike said the retired nurse began CPR in the vital first minutes while he ran for the defibrillator, which gives you step-by-step instructions and logs vital data which can be used by ambulance and hospital staff.

“Hopefully it will be the last time I’ll use it,” said Mike, who went back to work as usual after the incident.

“It was a case of just do it. It was surreal, yes, but it had to be done. It did take a bit of time to sink in. I put the machine on and let the machine do it. The adrenaline was pumping and you do what you can.”

Riverside Shopping Centre manager Roland Keevil praised Mike’s quick thinking.

“We are very proud of him and delighted that he was able to offer his assistance.”

Susan Angell would have died on the floor of the produce section at Target if it weren’t for Curtis Russell.

“The last thing I remember, I picked up an apple, and I was looking at it, and I thought, ‘I’m going to faint,’ ” said Angell, 59, whose heart stopped beating for a few minutes on April 25.

Her next memory is waking up in an ambulance, and a paramedic telling her a police officer had saved her life.

Russell, the West Des Moines police officer, was on patrol north of the West Glen Target when someone at the store called 911. Russell was in his second week on solo patrol.

“I was just driving around, and I was probably a quarter-mile away when I got tripped to go there,” Russell, 24, said.

He flipped on the lights and siren, and started going over in his mind how he would use the automatic external defibrillator in his patrol car.

Somebody from the store waved him into the east entrance, and he found Angell on the floor, surrounded by 15 or 20 people.

He knelt next to her and used the defibrillator to monitor her heart rhythm. A nurse was with Angell, and told Russell they hadn’t been able to find a pulse for two minutes. The defibrillator then signalled Russell to administer the shock.

“Right when it said ‘shock advised,’ that’s when the medics ran in,” Russell said.

He pressed the red button, and then did two sets of compressions, pushing on her sternum.

“Like a snap she woke up and said ‘Ow!’ kind of like she was dreaming,” Russell said.

Paramedics put her on a stretcher, and rolled her out to the ambulance.

“It never really hit me until one of the medics looked over and she said, ‘Great job,’ ” Russell said. “I was kind of in the zone, but then it came back to reality.”

He had saved the life of a mom, a friend. Angell, who lives in south Des Moines, is a retired teacher. She taught French at Lincoln High School for 25 years.

“I’m so grateful to him,” she said of Russell.

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 security guards have been hailed as heroes after saving the life of a pensioner who lay dying in the town centre.

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The trio from Middleton Shopping Centre raced to the aid of 75-year-old Vera Roach who had collapsed close to Burton Street after suffering a cardiac arrest.

As well as administering CPR, the quick-thinking threesome of Leigh Garratt, John Hayes and Paul Robinson used a defibrillator kept in the shopping centre while an ambulance raced to the scene.

John Heyes, Paul Robinson & Leigh Garatt the Saviours

Mrs Roach’s daughter Jacqueline, said the men’s actions had saved her mum’s live.

“The doctors told me that if it wasn’t for the actions of the guards my mum wouldn’t have made it. I cannot thank them enough.”

Mrs Roach is expected to arrive home today (Thursday) after spending a fortnight being treated at North Manchester General Hospital.

She collapsed on June 30 close to the lights at the end of Burton Street after leaving her home to head into Middleton town centre for some shopping.

But as she prepared to cross Factory Street she suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground.

A few minutes later, security manager Leigh Garratt from Reliance, who manage Middleton Shopping Centre’s, spotted Mrs Roach on the ground.

“I was just heading out on my lunch when I spotted a crowd gathered around this lady,” he said. “I went over and started performing CPR and asked my colleagues to bring over the defibrillation machine from the shopping centre.”

Leigh’s colleagues, John and Paul, arrived with the machine as the trio continued to attempt to restart Mrs Roach’s heart while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Once paramedics arrived, they continued to assistant the medical crews as they prepared to transfer her to hospital.

“There is a golden few minutes when someone’s heart stops,” Leigh added. “I have since found out that Mrs Roach had been there for over 10 minutes before we arrived, but we are trained to do this and were glad to help out.”

As well as working as security guards in Middleton Shopping Centre, Leigh and his colleagues are all trained in basic life support as well as how to use a defibrillation machine.

David McNally, community resuscitation manager for NW ambulance, who trained the guards, said: “If these machines are used within four minutes of someone collapsing the chances of people surviving goes up quite dramatically and this is what happened here.

“It is testament to their skill and the programme we do that someone’s life has been saved.”

Since the incident, Mrs Roach has been fitted with a pacemaker and has made a speedy recovery.

Her daughter Jacqueline said she was expected to return to her home in Parkfield today (Thursday).

“I cannot thank the guards enough for what they have done,” she said. “Together with the ambulance and doctors they have saved my mum’s live.”

Back in August, Karen Henderson, a Walmart employee noticed two shoplifters leaving the Miami Gardens store and she ran after them into the parking lot to retrieve the items.

On her way back to the store she collapsed.

Fortunately, Sgt. Jorge Yero, an off duty Miami Dade officer, was working nearby and ran to get his defibrillator.

Yero shocked her twice, started chest compressions, and eventually Henderson began to breathe again.

“I wasn’t thinking,” said Sgt. Yero. “I was just doing what we are trained to do and thank God I had the AED with me and I was at the right time at the right place.”

Henderson has no memory of the whole ordeal. All she remembers is a dream in which she saw long lost relatives at her childhood home.

“The door was cracked and there was this sunset light,” recalled Henderson. “The light drew me to the room and when I went to the room, I went to push the door open and the door closed back.”

She said her grandmother and other relatives told her to go home and that’s when she woke up and returned to life. Despite the ordeal, Henderson said she’s eager to return to work.

“If I could I would,” she said. “I don’t have no regrets no regrets thousands and thousands of shoplifters, I have no regrets.”