First Aid Corps

A man who suffered a heart attack in Ottawa’s Britannia Park was lucky that 85 members of the Canadian Ski Patrol were upgrading their CPR training in the park

“Somebody came in who had spoken to some of the patrollers earlier in the day and was interested in what we were doing — they came back in and said ‘Someone is dying outside in the park.’ And of course there was almost 100 of us here that could’ve gone out and checked out the situation,” Chisamore said.

The man, between 40 and 50 years of age, had been playing volleyball. He collapsed following the game and was not breathing and had no pulse.

The lifesaving recertification course suddenly became a real life emergency.

“So it was fortunate we were here,” said Chisamore.

Patrollers took one of their many defibrillators to the man in cardiac arrest and while waiting for paramedics to arrive, the ski patrollers shocked him with the defibrillator and did CPR.

By the time the ambulance arrived “the patient was gaining colour and that’s the best outcome,” Chisamore said.

Joe Camucci, who oversees paramedic services for the City of Ottawa, said timing is of the essence in these types of emergencies.

That’s why the municipality offer free CPR training to anyone who wants it and installs defibrillators in all public buildings, he said.

“If you want to have a cardiac arrest, do it on public property because your chance of being saved is 70 per cent,” he said.

Chisamore said the heart attack victim had good vital signs by Sunday night and was scheduled to be transferred to the Ottawa Hospital Heart Institute for followup care.

On June 10, while visiting friends in Goshen, New Hampton resident Dean Ouderkirk suffered a heart attack.

Dean Ouderkirk the Survivor

He was returning home from a reception for Occupations’ president and CEO. But before hopping on Route 17, he decided to say hello to his good friend, Joe Bayno, who resides on Fletcher Street in Goshen.

Bayno says Ouderkirk would often stop in for a cranberry juice and club soda after running afternoon errands in Goshen — but it was highly unusual for him to do so in the evening.

“We went out to the patio. He sat down — and went straight backward,” Bayno says. “His eyes were staring up at the sky. He was not breathing.”

Bayno immediately reached for his cell phone, which is always with him — he doesn’t have a land line — and didn’t lose a second dialing 911. He was instructed to put one hand under Ouderkirk’s head to prevent it from slamming into the concrete floor as he began forceful chest compressions with the other.

“I was banging his chest with a flat hand as hard as I could,” says Bayno. “I must have done it at least 50 times.”

Officer Christopher Smoulcey of the Village of Goshen Police Department was behind the track at the Harness Racing Museum — less than a minute away — when the medical call came through. Officer James M. Malgieri was on Greenwich Street.

“I had the defibrillator with me in the front seat,” says Smoulcey, who grabbed it as he left his car and ran to Bayno’s front door. There was no response, so he went to the screen door on the side house, where he was able to see Bayno kneeling over Ouderkirk. Malgieri arrived shortly thereafter.

Smoulcey unzipped the AED (automated external defibrillator), donated by Marie Durland on behalf of the Pennings Family in 2002. He then opened the packet with the adult defibrillator pads and electrodes. He affixed one to the lower left abdomen area and the other to the upper right shoulder.

“Mr. Ouderkirk was not breathing. There was no pulse. He was blue in the face and had a glassy stare,” says Malgieri. “Joe Bayno did a good job by listening to the instructions he was given when he called 911.”

Smoulcey continued connecting Ouderkirk to the AED. “It analyzes the heart rhythms, and if it detects a shockable rhythm, it directs that you hit the button to administer the shock,” says Smoulcey.

Ouderkirk was shocked twice.

“I did CRP and rescue breaths for a good 10 minutes,” says Malgieri. “There was a gasp, but no pulse, and he was still not breathing.”

Within a few minutes, a paramedic from Mobile Life arrived, soon followed by the ambulance.

“The two cops and I watched as they worked on him,” says Bayno. “They continued with chest compressions.”

And Ouderkirk was shocked twice more.

After a good half-hour, says Smoulcey, Ouderkirk was lifted onto a stretcher, placed into the ambulance and rushed to the emergency room at Orange Regional Medical Center’s Middletown campus.

The defibrillator that was used to save Oudrkirk’s life was donated to the department by the Pennings family, in memory of their brother, Richard Pennings. During Richard’s illness, many friends and relatives donated to a medical fund in his name. After the loss of Richard, the family, Dr. Nick Pennings, Dr. Anthony Pennings, Margaret Hawkins and Marie Durland, donated the defibrillator to the department using those funds.

Ouderkirk and his fiancée, Carole Syverson, came to the Village of Goshen Police Department on Aug. 13 to meet and express their thanks to people who had a part in saving his life.

Dean and Carol’s celebration of life will culminate this April, when they will be married.

“Carol and I are looking forward to our wedding in April. It will be a celebration of life,” he says.

“There’s clearly something left for him to do in this world — besides marry me,” says Syverson. “Maybe part of it is to let people know what wonderful care is available in Orange County.”

The members of the Village Of Goshen Police Department congratulate them and wish them many years of health and happiness together.

Allan Bealing and Caroline Marshall, from Wellington Free Ambulance, were waiting in a queue at Burger King in Courtenay Place about 2am on August 1 when Mr Ilton, who was across the road, suddenly collapsed.

Josh Ilton the Survivor

Recognising something was seriously wrong when Mr Ilton collapsed, his friend put him in the recovery position and dialled 111. Onlookers rushed over the street to get the paramedics, who quickly identified the signs of cardiac arrest.

“Josh had agonal respirations, [irregular breathing], sounding a bit like loud gasping or snoring,” Mr Bealing said.

Because of a large number of intoxicated bystanders, the paramedics transferred Mr Ilton to the back of an ambulance and began performing CPR and shocked him with a defibrillator to try to restart his heart.

A second Wellington Free Ambulance paramedic crew arrived to take him to Wellington Hospital, with Mr Bealing, Ms Marshall and a paramedic student continuing to perform CPR on the way.

Tests have shown no reason for his heart attack but he is scheduled to have an operation today to implant a defibrillator near his heart. “I was really lucky the paramedics worked on me so hard and were in the right place at the right time,” Mr Ilton said.

His mother, Nelma Pearce, was very grateful the paramedics recognised immediately that her son had not just fallen over drunk.

“The fact they were just across the road when Josh collapsed was a massive stroke of luck.”

Mr Bealing said that more often than not a patient did not survive this type of medical emergency.

“He primarily survived because CPR was started so soon after he collapsed and a defibrillator was nearby to deliver the shock that reverted the heart into its normal rhythm.

“Without these key factors he would have been unlikely to survive …”

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.”

On Monday afternoon, Aviles, 13, was set to begin a weekly workout at World Gym. After a five-minute warm up, Aviles took a water break.

Edgar Aviles the Survivor

When his trainer, Oscar Carranza, called the young boy to begin the workout session, Aviles stood up and immediately fell to the ground onto his stomach.

“It happened so fast, he didn’t even get to close his water bottle. Edgar was not breathing, there was no pulse and he was starting to turn blue,” Carranza said.

At that point, Jordan Ramirez, a sales rep at the gym who received his CPR certification last Thursday, ran to the boy after Carranza called for his help.

“I didn’t feel a pulse, so I told Oscar we had to conduct CPR,” Ramirez said. “You could tell when Edgar was coming back to life, you could see him come in and out.”

Within three minutes, EMTs arrived on the scene and immediately used a defibrillator that brought the boy back to life.

He was then transported to Providence Memorial Hospital in El Paso, where doctors stabilized his condition.

The next day, Edgar was transferred to University Medical Center of El Paso, where he was diagnosed with arrhythmic heart failure and an enlarged heart.

Elizabeth Aviles was at the gym during her son’s near-death encounter. She said she last talked to Edgar when he came to ask for a water bottle and went back to his workout. She was at another part of the facility when her son collapsed and did not witness the quick response by the two World Gym employees.

“I really thought I was going to lose my son,” Aviles said. “If it wasn’t for Oscar and Jordan my son wouldn’t be alive.”

GEELONG Football Club doctor Geoff Allen has told of surviving his mid-field heart attack at AAMI Stadium of Friday night, revealing he ignored telltale chest pain in the weeks before his potentially fatal seizure.

The super-fit medic, speaking from his ward in Adelaide’s Queen Elizabeth Hospital yesterday, said he’d been “stupid” not to seek treatment after experiencing dull chest pain during the past few weeks which had started radiating into his left arm.

“If people get chest pain, make sure they go and see their doctor, not like the dumb doctor who doesn’t go and see anyone,” Dr Allen, 48, told the Geelong Advertiser.

Dr Allen had run 6km on Friday a few hours before he suffered the heart attack as he oversaw the Cats warm up on AAMI Stadium for the match against the Crows.

“I’d had a little bit of pain but I just thought it was kind of like a muscle I’d pulled in my chest and that it wasn’t heart, which is great for a doctor not to pick up, and on the night I had no pain,” Dr Allen said.

“If I’d been home I really would have got it checked out but then thought I’ll go and get this sorted out on Monday.

“It was just dumb, in retrospect, very stupid and I’m very lucky.”

Dr Allen remained in cardiac care yesterday, active and eating but still connected to two drips and a heart monitor.

His wife Claudia and children Emma, 15, Georgie, 12, and Sam, 10, caught a midnight light plane flight on Friday night to be by his side.

Cardiologists diagnosed blockage of one congenitally narrow artery, inserted a stent to keep it clear and predicted a full recovery.

Dr Allen owes his life to the immediate cardiac resuscitation response of officials including fellow club doctor Chris Bradshaw and paramedics, and to the proximity of a heart defibrillator.

“With that rhythm I was in, without a defibrillator, it rarely reverts without electricity,” Dr Allen said.

“If I’d done it even in the mall or somewhere where there’s no defibrillator, by the time an ambulance gets to you it’s probably going to be too late or by the time it gets to you, your brain’s going to be dead.

“I was zapped within two minutes, which is hopefully why my brain is OK.”

Dr Bradshaw, who had run the six kilometres with Dr Allen during Friday afternoon, said his friend was in a desperate state.

“He didn’t have a pulse, he wasn’t breathing and he was blue,” Dr Bradshaw said.

“Basically he had a full cardiac arrest, he wasn’t in a great way, it was a bit scary.

“All of the players were still around him, it was crazy.”

Dr Bradshaw said he was grateful for having completed a refresher emergency resuscitation response course organised by the Cats about six weeks ago.

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.”

Dr. Robert Myerburg said he heard a woman screaming and saw a man on the floor.

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The man had just arrived at Miami International Airport from Paris ,and was standing in the passport line.

When Dr. Myerburg got to him, he didn’t have a pulse. He immediately started CPR and asked a guard for a defibrillator to shock the man’s heart back into rhythm.

There are 30 in terminals across MIA, but, as he found out that day, there were none inside the large and isolated federal security area where international arrivals are first processed.

By the time someone was able to bring him a defibrillator, a fire rescue crew had arrived and the passenger was taken to UM Hospital.

Within days after the incident, a defibrillator was installed in the federally secured area.

And the patient made a complete recovery, even though the odds were stacked against him.

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.

Retired paramedic Anthony Edison, off-duty firefighters Paul Fudge and Darrell Dalley and respiratory technician Gina Andrews were attending a social event on Dec. 4, 2009 at the local fire station with colleagues and friends when one of the guests suddenly collapsed.

Paul Fudge, Anthony Edison, Gina Andrew & Darrell Dalley the Saviours

Mr. Edison said he was chatting with Augustus Lewis, a retired fire captain in his early 80s, when “all of sudden, he just dropped to the floor. So, I got down there and started an assessment on him and found that he had no pulse, no respirations and with that we started CPR (cardio-respiratory resuscitation).”

Mr. Edison then told the duty fire officer in the radio room to call for an ambulance. He said a defibrillator and oxygen were taken off one of the fire trucks, an airway tube was inserted and Andrews took over the respirations.

Mr. Fudge took control of the defibrillator, and Mr. Edison and Mr. Dalley took turns doing chest compressions.

“We worked on him, Paul got a shock in on him and we got him back from there,” Mr. Edison said.

“It felt wonderful,” he said, when they realized they had saved his life. Mr. Edison said Mr. Lewis has since had an internal defibrillator implanted in his chest and is doing well. “He just got back from two weeks in Cuba, so it worked out good,” he said.

Mr. Fudge said he felt good after the experience, especially since it was someone they all knew. “If you’re going to have a heart attack, that’s the place to have one,” at the firehall, he joked.

Mr. Dalley said knowing that MR. Lewis was doing well days after the event was a great feeling.

Ms. Andrews said she also felt wonderful, but is used to doing this type of thing every day, “just not out of the hospital” where she works as a respiratory technician.