First Aid Corps

The night of Sept. 9, Carol Lewis, 52, felt dizzy and then collapsed in her house in the Saybrook Village housing plan in Greensburg.

Carol Lewis the Survivor

She didn’t have a pulse, according to people who were with her that night.

Her 16-year-old son, John, called Westmoreland County 911 and raced to neighbors Ron and Renee Berberick while staying on the phone with a dispatcher.

The Berbericks performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, on Lewis until two other neighbors shocked her twice with an AED.

Renee Berberick, a nurse, said Lewis had no pulse and was blue when she and her husband started CPR.

“I didn’t know that we had the AED machine,” Renee Berberick said. “There were two men that came in, and I was just so happy to see them.”

“You never think you’re going to use (CPR training), but we did,” said Ron Berberick, who works as a shift commander at the state prison in Hempfield.

Residents of Saybrook Village had bought the AED, which consists of a defibrillator, two electrode pads and connection wires, after a door-to-door fundraising campaign in the neighborhood a few years ago. The AED and three others are kept in the homes of emergency responders who live in the plan and have AED training.

“I’m a firm believer in the AED now,” Lewis said. “I think that if that wasn’t around, I probably wouldn’t be around. I didn’t know we had one in the neighborhood, actually.”

Espersen, 24, said her mother’s experience seemed like a bad dream that turned positive.

“It was a nightmare I never thought would come true,” she said of the night her mother collapsed. “Honestly, it was like something you see in the movies: You never think that it will happen to you.”

She said the quickness that her mother received CPR and shocks from the AED — all within about three minutes — saved her life.

Rob Mattes and Bill Krulac used the AED twice before getting a pulse from Lewis. Mattes said the close proximity of the AED was a factor in saving Lewis’ life. “There’s no doubt in my mind,” he said.

Lewis said she could never give enough thanks to her friends and neighbors who rescued her.

“I don’t know what you can say to somebody that saved your life,” she said.

On Dec. 20, Vitale was outside his New Providence home talking to a neighbor, watching his two young children play in the snow, when the otherwise healthy, then 43-year-old’s heart stopped working.

Tom Vitale the Survivor

His Kendrick Road neighbor called 911 and grabbed her husband, who started performing CPR on Vitale.

The New Providence police arrived within minutes, carrying an automated external defibrillator, which administers an electric shock, in an attempt to jolt the heart back to life.

“I was blue. I had no pulse or anything,” recalled Vitale, who said he doesn’t remember anything from the late December day, but pieced together the incident through his wife and neighbors. “I essentially died on that Saturday — or at least somebody unplugged me.”

After the defibrillator restored a weak rhythm, medics transported Vitale to Overlook Hospital.

Vitale awoke several days later. “The first big memory I have is waking up literally on Christmas Day and hearing the Today Show saying ‘Merry Christmas’” said Vitale.

A week later, Vitale walked out of the hospital without complications. He returned to work as a management consultant more than a month ago. And on Monday, he joined Schwartz, and other doctors instrumental in his care, on the golf course.

The game benefited the Gagnon Cardiovascular Institute at Overlook Hospital — one of the facilities instrumental in saving Vitale’s life.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.

Mr. Smith, who lives across the street from the high school, was working in his yard when he suffered a heart attack. “Just got done teaching health when a lady came into my classroom and said, ‘There’s a man that just had a heart attack across the street. Come quick, help.’” said Russell Henrie, the Delta High School football coach.

“Coach Henrie told me to run in and grab the defibrillator out of the office, and I ran and grabbed it,” Hatch, one of his football players said. Hatch ran the life-saving device across the street, just like he was on his way to scoring a touchdown. By then a neighbor had already started CPR, and Henrie started operating the defibrillator. The machine instructed them on how to use it. “I was glad to hear that. You just turn it on, and it tells you what to do,” Henrie said.

The machine found no pulse and advised a shock. After two shocks and more CPR, the ambulance arrived. Mr. Smith was rushed to the hospital and regained consciousness before being airlifted to Provo.

“I’ve taught it a million times, but never had to do it, and I finally got to see it in action, and it works.” Henrie says.