First Aid Corps

Lt. Jamie Hicks told the Chesterton Tribune today that at 1:24 p.m. the CFD was dispatched to the bowling alley Westchester Lanes at 124 N. Eighth St.—just around the corner from the fire house—in response to a report of a full cardiac arrest.

On firefighters’ arrival, a woman whom Hicks identified as the owner’s wife and a nurse was already administering CPR to the victim, a retirement-aged gentleman.

“We took over CPR and then applied the AED,” Hicks said. “We shocked him two times. Then we did more CPR.”

“By the time EMS got to the scene and we loaded the man into the ambulance, he was talking and breathing,” Hicks said.

Hicks also gave full credit to the nurse on the scene. “Early CPR, early defibrillation, that’s the key to saving people,” he said.

18-year-old senior Jake Bryan collapsed on January 13th while giving an English presentation.

Students, teachers, and nurses quickly came to Jake’s aid.

“He was not one who typically had seizures, so at that point, we knew that it was an emergency, and I called 9-1-1 and nurse Nancy started monitoring him,” said Bonnie Davis, registered nurse.

Nurse Nancy Bocchino described the scene.

“Lying face down, blood around his head, in the middle of a seizure,” she said.

While the nurses performed CPR on Jake, a teacher ran upstairs to get a defibrillator.

“It was a horrible day, because he was dead on us, he was dead,” added Bocchino.

An automated external defibrillator or AED was used to jumpstart Jake’s heart.

“It was like a gasp, and we looked up, and the firefighters and EMT’s were there. They stepped in at that point,” Bocchino said.

Jake was then taken to Huntsville Hospital’s Heart Center where Doctors performed a series of tests.

“It showed a type of abnormality that people have, who have an inherited problem, that can lead to sudden death,” said Dr. Jay Dinerman, cardiologist.

It’s an abnormality known in the medical world as Long QT syndrome, and it’s an inherited defect that will change part of Jake’s life forever.

From here on out, he’ll have to wear his own defibrillator.

With the exception of contact sports, Jake can now live a pretty normal life.

“He’s a great kid, he’s very up-beat, optimistic. I think he took this the way you would really want to see people take it. He realized it was something that happened to him, something he was born with, nothing he could do much about. He’s just moving on.”

Moving on, but with a new outlook on life.

“Are you thankful for your life,” asked WAFF 48 News.

“Yeah I am, it just opened up more opportunities since I’ve had this heart attack. I feel blessed,” Jake said.

“I’ve already told them, but I’d like to say thank you again, I love all of you, you’re the reason why I’m here,” he added about those who helped him.

Jake has now graduated. He wants to go to Embry Riddle to become a pilot.

It happened March 23rd, during the first class of the day.

Gym teacher Ken Haines said, “The class was doing a mile timed run. He was up toward the front and he was running strong, completed one lap, he was running around and right in this area right here, I saw him collapse down on all fours, seconds later he was just totally unresponsive.”

He was talking about seventh grader Travis Arnold. He radioed nursing assistant Tressa Palmer immediately, and sent students to get help.

“Two girls from the middle school came running and said that they needed me on the track, that a student was down,” said Palmer.

Two other staff members got the school’s defibrillator, or A.E.D. as she ran to the track. “I went over to Mr. Haines, he told me to try and see if I could find a pulse. I could not, Travis was still unconscious,” said Palmer.

Haines said, “She got the AED got right out here, I continued CPR while she hooked him up to the AED and shocked him and she started chest compressions and I was doing the breaths.”

His father, David Arnold remembers the call from the school secretary. “‘The word defibrillator was used’, and I said you only use a defibrillator on someone’s whose heart stopped. And she said Mr. Arnold you need to get to the hospital right now.”

What happened to the him was later called a sudden death episode. His parents say if the stars we not aligned that day, it all would be different. It seems everyone was in the right place at the right time.

A month later, Travis was back to school, and now, he’s just about back to doing all the things he used to do. “Yeah, 99 percent,” said Travis. He’s a man of few words, and thanks his favorite teacher. Dad is thankful he’s here to do it. “Like that day, I was just thankful I got to hug my son again.”

As the staff members and EMTs were honored, the gym teacher that saved his life said, “Travis, thanks for pulling through buddy, I appreciate that, and so does everyone else here”

Ironically, that gym teacher Ken Haines, collapsed in high school during a soccer game, was taken to the same hospital, and saved by a defibrillator.

Francis Howell Middle School’s seventh-grader Austin Redd, 13, collapsed to the floor at the start of class and went into cardiac arrest about 12:45 p.m., officials said.

St. Charles County Deputy Ron Neupert, 50, the school’s resource officer, raced to the gym and found Austin unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse. Neupert started CPR and radioed for an ambulance.

The school’s nurse, Lynne Finnerty, shocked Austin’s heart once with the school’s automatic external defibrillator.

View World Map on AED Locations in a larger map
Shortly after, Austin regained consciousness.

“It seemed like forever, but within a few seconds, he began to breathe on his own and you could see he was coming around,” Neupert said.

Austin is expected to recover.

Marty Limpert, a spokesman for the St. Charles County Ambulance District, said the incident illustrates the need for AEDs in schools and staff trained in life-saving procedures.

“There’s no doubt that they saved his life,” Limpert said.

“It’s awesome,” Neupert said of Austin’s recovery. “These kids are my kids, and I care about every single one of them.”

Francis Howell Middle School Principal Amy Johnston said that Thursday was the first time the school has used its AED since it was installed about eight years ago.

And “hopefully the last,” she said.

Walter Peaston, a retired 69-year old medical doctor, collapsed while he worked out on a rowing machine for the community health project at Galleon Centre in Kilmarnock.

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But a quick-thinking cardiac nurse Gillian Mitchell, 31, and an off-duty fireman Kenny McGill, 35, carried out CPR on the stricken medic as gym staff raced to find a defibrillator.

He said: “He hadn’t been breathing for at least four minutes, maybe five, and there was no pulse. He was blue.

“I knew there was a heart defibrillator in the centre and I shouted to staff to get it.”

Moments later, fitness instructor Nathan Mobey arrived with the defibrillator and shocked him back to life.

Kenny said: “The guy just let out a scream and bizarrely that meant he was okay. He only believed he’d been passed out for a few seconds.”

Paramedics rushed Walter to Crosshouse Hospital after Thursday’s drama and last night he was described as being in a stable condition.

Kenny added: “It’s fortunate that both Gillian and I work for the emergency services. He’s a lucky, lucky man.”

March 11 started like every other day at Timber Creek High School, with students and staff standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Savannah Vaden the Survivor

“I was in chemistry class, and we stood up to say the pledge.” the Timber Creek High School Sophomore Savannah Vaden recalled.

“She hit the ground, I heard a gasp,” Vaden’s Chemistry teacher, Shelley Hawkins remembered, “so I ran over there saw she was seizing.”

Another student helped Hawkins roll Savannah onto her side, then Hawkins called for the nurse and ran next door to get Mike King, science teacher and girls’ soccer coach.

“I had seen people having seizures before, so I wasn’t too worried about her. I just wanted to keep her safe until help arrived,” King said.

Hawkins took the other students into the next room.

Just after school nurse Thoy Fongsamouth came in, Savannah’s condition worsened.

“All of a sudden the seizures stopped, and she stopped breathing,” King said.

Fongsamouth issued a “code red” via her walkie-talkie and told office staff to call 911.

The code red triggered a team of people into action. King ran for the nearest automatic external defibrillator, or AED, other team members grabbed other AED devices around the school.

Principal Todd Tunnell and Assistant Principal James Johnson arrived as part of the code red team. Tunnell and Johnson stayed in the room while other members waited for emergency personnel or monitored hallways.

Fongsamouth and King hooked Savannah up to the AED and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“It was a very sobering feeling hearing the computerized voice on the AED say, ‘Shocking in 3, 2, 1,’” Johnson said.

King said, “It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

“I wanted her to be ok,” Hawkins said, “and I kept just praying ‘let her be ok, let her be ok.’”

Johnson said both King and Fongsamouth kept calm during the crisis.

“To see somebody go into cardiac arrest, and then come back,” Johnson said, “it’s something that sticks with you for life.”

Erin Vaden, Savannah’s mom, arrived at the school just as a fire truck pulled up. A staff member met her at the door and took her to Savannah. She was just in time to see her daughter shocked by the AED.

“No parent should ever have to see that. I almost wish I hadn’t gotten there that quick,” Erin Vaden said. “You want to be there for your child, but you can’t handle seeing it.”

She walked back into the hall because she was so upset. A moment later, she heard that Savannah had a pulse and was breathing on her own and went back into the room.

Paramedics arrived and made sure Savannah’s condition was stable before loading her into the ambulance and taking her to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Savannah stayed in the hospital for five days. Doctors were able to determine what happened, but not why.

Although she doesn’t remember collapsing, she said she’s thankful she was at school when she did. “If it wouldn’t have happened here, I wouldn’t be here today.” she said.

She now has a permanent defibrillator in her chest that will jolt her heart, if it ever stops again.

Fifteen minutes before dismissal at Bismarck-Henning Junior High School quickly became the longest minutes of Josie Siddens’ life.

Siddens, the nurse for the school district, was returning to her office March 25 when a student came running up, telling her 12-year-old Ashton Norwell was screaming in the gymnasium.

Norwell was being led to Siddens’ office because he felt sick when he began to cry out in pain. But by the time Siddens — who was only seconds from the gymnasium — arrived, the boy was unresponsive and not breathing.

From there, Siddens went into action, moving the boy to the gym floor with the help of a gym teacher while Principal Rusty Campbell called 911. Another gym teacher stepped into the hallway to retrieve an automated external defibrillator hanging on the wall.

“I was looking at (the scene) saying ‘This is not happening here,’” said Siddens, a part-time emergency room nurse at Provena United Samaritans Medical Center. “From there it was just gut reaction.”

Siddens said she used the defibrillator immediately and then began CPR. She repeated the process, but was getting no response from Ashton, who had turned blue.

“I was scared the entire time, but from the second shock on I was saying ‘C’mon, buddy. C’mon, Ashton,’” Siddens recounted.

Suddenly, following the third shock from the defibrillator, Ashton drew a quick gasp of air.

Oxygen provided by Bismarck Community Ambulance helped bring him around and by the time Medix Ambulance personnel arrived, the lifeless boy was cracking jokes at his school nurse.

“There’s never been a better sound in my life than hearing him talk to me,” she said. “It was just fantastic.”

It may have only been a few minutes, but the scene was emotionally draining for Siddens.

“I’m fine during the emergency, I can handle myself well during the emergency,” she said. “But immediately after the emergency, not so well. Lots of people held me up after that.”

Steve Aceto, 54, an attorney of Montreat, N.C., was running alongside Robert Barker, his childhood friend and neighbor who is a general practitioner and running enthusiast. Aceto’s son Bill was ahead of his father.

Steve Aceto the Survivor

Aceto and Barker had made it across the bridge and were on Meeting Street at about the five-mile marker when Aceto fell motionless in the street.

Barker quickly noticed his absence and turned back to render aid to his friend, who had suffered a heart attack five years ago.

Running behind them were a number of other doctors and nurses, many of them connected with the Medical University of South Carolina.

When they began attending to Aceto, they could not detect a pulse. They began administering CPR and called for an automated external defibrillator, which administered a shock that got Aceto’s heart beating again.

An ambulance had been summoned, and they were able to get him to MUSC for treatment within minutes of the incident.

Simon Watson, an emergency room physician from MUSC, was one of those runners closest to Aceto and called the hospital so the cardiac care team, headed by Eric Powers, could be assembled quickly.

Aceto said it was a wonderful run.

“I got over the bridge and back down. I got a good bit of the way down Meeting Street and was just about to the turn at the 5-mile marker. It was like flipping off a switch. I didn’t have any sensation of falling. Just a sharp pain and oblivion.

“My next memory was looking up and seeing a bunch of people I did not know who seemed very glad to see me. I found out later they had been doing CPR on me for about 10 minutes, including my dear friend who apparently pushed a beautiful emergency room nurse out of the way to do it. He and I are going to have words about that.”

Barker said that when he saw Aceto in the road he ran back, turned Aceto onto his back, grabbed his head and began yelling to him, trying to get a response.

“We had been talking, and then I looked to my left and he wasn’t there,” said Barker.

He placed his hand on his friend’s forehead and began praying.

“All of a sudden, his right hand moved. And then somebody said he’s breathing. He said, ‘I need to get up.’ It was like he came back from the dead.”

Aceto said technically he was dead, and he plans to frame his race number, stained with blood from where he hit the pavement, alongside the printout from the automated external defibrillator to prove he ran the race.

Aceto said there wasn’t time to be frightened, that he had trust in God as well as the professionals who were treating him.

“I happened to be among the right people,” he said, “at the right place and at the right time.”

The middle-aged St Joseph’s Doora-Barefield club member was watching his son play an U21 hurling championship clash with east Clare side Clonlara at Wolfe Tones GAA club in Shannon when he collapsed unexpectedly.

Two nurses and several other bystanders quickly ran to the man’s aid. One nurse determined that the man had suffered a cardiac arrest and sent another person to the clubhouse to raise the alarm and find a defibrillator.

The nurses, one from each club, promptly began to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and used the defibrillator to revive the man. Soon afterwards, ambulance paramedics arrived at the scene and began treating the patient.

St Joseph’s club secretary Mr Dan O’Connor said: “We are very grateful that there were so many people there to help but we have to compliment the Wolfe Tones club for having such a vital piece of lifesaving equipment when it was needed. Having a defibrillator in a club, as we have ourselves, is absolutely essential and every club in the country should have one.”

The Wolfe Tones club was presented with their defibrillator almost two years ago after money was raised by the students of the nearby St Conaire’s primary school.

Groundsman Mike Kelly, one of those trained to used the defibrillator, said: “I was down at the dressing room end working on the scoreboard when someone came running up looking for the defibrillator. Ours is strategically located so that it can be quickly accessed from the bar area, the dressing rooms or any part of the club. I grabbed it and handed it over and two nurses carried out CPR on the man. It definitely saved that man’s life.”

Swift actions by a school nurse, two police officers and a firefighter are being credited with saving the life of a Bergenfield High School student who had collapsed.

The 17-year-old girl, who collapsed at the school on Friday, March 5, is recovering in the cardiac care center at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark.

Police Capt. Michael Carr said that a two-man police unit responded to the scene, and when they arrived they were told by school personnel that a defibrillator would be needed.

At the same time, Robert Burns, one of the borough’s full-time firefighters, heard the call on the police radio and rushed over to the high school from the Prospect Fire Company 1 firehouse located across from the school, with the defibrillator.

Carr said that credit for saving the girl’s life goes to the two police officers, Frank DaCosta and David Keelor, the latter rookie on the force, who joined school nurse Susan Schielzo in performing CPR on the girl, along with Burns who applied the defibrillator.

Kuchar praised all of the responders, calling them “incredible people.” He also said that Schielzo responded to the girl “like a real mama bear.”

“She treated her like she was her own daughter,” he said.

Carr said defibrillators were recently acquired by the fire department.

“They are very easy to apply, the machine does all of the work,” he said.