First Aid Corps

When the Powers family showed up at Cheatham County Central High School on Jan. 6 to cheer for Harpeth High School senior Anna Powers as she played against the Lady Cubs, they had no idea what was about to transpire.

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Todd Powers’ stepfather, Harvey Latimer, 86, of Ashland City had never seen his granddaughter, Anna, play in a high school game.

Sherri Manners the Saviour

“We were getting ready to take him home, but he got exhausted coming up the stairs,” Todd Powers said.

Thanks to the quick response of registered nurse Sherri Manners, who teaches at CCCHS and was working the ticket table, Latimer was set on a life-saving path.

“I got him to sit down, and said we’d get him a wheelchair to get to the car,” Manners said. “But then I said to call EMS because I didn’t like the way he looked.”

She also quickly alerted Cheatham County constable Fred Biggs, who was working the game to see if any medical personnel were available to help if needed.

“When I came back, he didn’t look good,” she said. “We got him on the floor. I couldn’t find a pulse, and he wasn’t breathing. So, I began to do CPR.”

CCCHS principal Glenna Barrow ran to get the Automated External Defibrillator (AED), which was housed in the school’s cafeteria.

“I ran so fast I could feel my knees start to give out, so I tossed the AED to (Cheatham County EMS director) James (Gupton),” Barrow said.

Manners said that once they got the AED attached to Latimer, it said to resume chest compression.

Latimer was taken to Centennial Medical Center in Nashville, where it was determined that he had the beginnings of pneumonia, as well as some issues with heart rhythm.

He had a pacemaker put in on Jan. 11 and is recuperating at Hillcrest Healthcare Center in Ashland City for two weeks.

“As scary as it was, it turned out to be a good thing because he’s in much better shape afterward,” Powers said. “The ER doctor said his blood pressure had bottomed out. It could have happened anytime. And having the AED on him helped. This was the perfect place for him to get taken care of.”

The Powers family had nothing but praise for how the situation was handled.

Barrows, who had taught both Anna and her older sister, Hannah, when they were students at Pegram Elementary School, was there to comfort Anna.

Thinking back on that day, Manners recalls how everything fell into place.

“I had just signed up earlier in the day to work the ticket table and was told they had enough people, but I decided to stick around just in case I was needed,” she said.

Powers noted that Latimer wasn’t going to come to the game.

“He felt he couldn’t sit that long because of back issues, and so I showed him I had a stadium chair,” he said. “The actions of these people saved his life.”

After everything settling down, Manners said she stepped away briefly to cry.

On Feb. 19, 2011, she performed CPR on her father.

“He was gone,” she said, adding that she lost three family members last year.

Manners teaches six classes in health science occupation, a program designed to provide an introductory overview of the basics. Instruction includes working with an AED trainer kit, which is a slightly smaller version of the actual AED used by each of Cheatham County’s public schools.

As for one of the most often overlooked instructions for those using the AED, Manners has some practical advice.

“You have to remember to turn it on,” she said.

A Columbia Falls High School student collapsed after his heart failed earlier this week, but some quick action brought him back to life.

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The 16-year-old student is now recovering in the Intensive Care Unit at Kalispell Regional Medical Center after collapsing during gym class at around 8:30 a.m. Wednesday.

School staff began performing CPR to save his life and then several people, including the athletic trainer and nurse, began using a defibrillator to shock the student and get him breathing.

Three Rivers EMS was on the scene within four minutes and by the time emergency responders got to the student he had a pulse and was breathing on his own.

The student was then taken by ambulance to Kalispell Regional Medical Center and placed in ICU.

Sam Hungerbuhler, of Cumming, was attending a basketball game for his stepson at Queen of Angels Catholic School in Roswell when the players started going to the ceiling.

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At least that’s what Hungerbuhler, 42, thought was happening.

Sam Hungerbuhler the Survivor

“I was sitting there watching the kids going to the ceiling, but at the same time I was like ‘Why are the kids going to the ceiling?’”

That was Hungerbuhler, 5-foot-5-inches tall and 160 pounds, passing out from a heart attack.

Hungerbuhler, a respiratory therapist at Children’s Healthcare of Atlanta Scottish Rite, was in luck.

His wife, Trish, is a nurse at Children’s and knew that Queen of Angels is equipped with an automated external defibrillator (AED) machine that tells users how many shocks are needed while medics are dispatched.

The game stopped, and game attendees stood around the edge of the basketball court saying prayers.

Another nurse helped with CPR — Cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“She was doing the compressions and my wife was doing the mouth-to-mouth,” Hungerbuhler said.

The nurse’s husband, an anesthesiologist, held his jaw open.

“After the shock, the machine said keep doing the compression,” said Hungerbuhler. “The machine told them what they needed to be doing.”

Queen of Angels nurses Robin Spinner and Rae Ann Gruver were responsible for ensuring the AED batteries and pads were updated regularly.

“These roles are typical, crucial ones played by school nurses,” said Sheila Vahey, Johns Creek Cluster Nurse for Fulton County Schools. “If the AED is not properly maintained, it won’t work in an emergency when a life is on the line.”

Hungerbuhler is grateful to have had a heart attack at a school equipped with life-saving gear. Hungerbuhler’s right coronary artery had been completely blocked. He said he knew his family has a history of heart attacks, but he never thought it would happen to him.

“I never had chest pains, I was in good shape, I exercised and didn’t think it would happen to me,” he said.

All the physicians and nurses who treated him said he was “lucky.”

In the New Year, Hungerbuhler has a fresh outlook on life.

“Being more positive and encouraging other people not to put it away like I did,” he said. “Pay attention to your body, especially if you have a family history.”

His friends have listened and have gone to get checked out.

“I feel great. I guess when you’re used to living with it and it happens over time, you don’t notice it,” Hungerbuhler said. “Now I feel more awake and more aware.”

Calvin Haynes went home Tuesday for Christmas.

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Haynes, 15, of Natchitoches nearly died on Dec. 12 during Natchitoches Central’s freshman boys basketball game at Pineville High School. On Tuesday, a day after having a defibrillator surgically placed in his chest in New Orleans, Haynes and his mother, Clara, went home for the first time since the terrifying incident.

Calvin Haynes the Survivor

“I wasn’t at the game, but I was blessed with angels that worked with my son that got him back to life,” said Mrs. Haynes. “His heart had stopped beating for eight minutes, and he was unconscious for 30-40 minutes. Some people say he is lucky to be alive. He wasn’t lucky, he was blessed.”

Haynes, a small forward, wasn’t a starter in the contest, but he remembers being sent into the game in the second quarter.

“I don’t remember going down,” he said. “I remember scoring a basket and going back (down court) to play defense. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in the hospital.”

Micah Coleman, in his sixth year as the varsity boys’ basketball coach at Natchitoches Central, was watching from the sideline while freshman coach Kolton Sepulvado’s Chiefs played the Rebel freshmen. As Coleman was visiting with Pineville varsity boys’ basketball coach Corey Simon, Haynes made a nice move to the goal for a layup off the glass.

“I was talking with Corey about Calvin after he caught Corey’s eye with that score,” Coleman said, “and pointing at him as he was running down floor and then collapsed. You see kids fall all the time in basketball, but you could tell there was something different about the way he fell. To say it scared me would be an understatement. I was terrified.”

“It was a dead sound,” said Gage Trahan, a certified athletic trainer and Pineville teacher who was on duty at the game and administered to Haynes on the court. “Initially, it looked as though he was having a seizure. He was very rigid and shaking.”

Donna Lemoine, a nurse from Rapides Regional Medical Center who happened to be at the game because her daughter was scheduled to play in a freshman girls basketball game after the boys contest, soon joined Trahan on the court to help.

Despite the appearances, Haynes wasn’t having a seizure, Lemoine said, noting he wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse.

“We did several minutes of CPR,” said Lemoine, a former paramedic and emergency room nurse who taught CPR for 20 years and now is director of the trauma department at Rapides Regional. “At one point, it seemed he started breathing again, but it was not a good pulse.”

Trahan got Simon to call an ambulance and the Pineville Fire Department, and he hustled to get an automated external defibrillator (AED) that was by the school cafeteria near the gym.

“That’s what the patient needed,” said Lemoine, who had also been doing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation on Haynes. “Gage turned it on and started analyzing the heart rhythm, and it advised he needed to be shocked. We shocked the patient and started doing CPR again.”

By the time the ambulance and Pineville firefighters arrived, Haynes was stable enough to be transported to the emergency room.

“When I got to the hospital, Calvin was conscious and recognized my voice,” said Mrs. Haynes, who arrived at the ER about 15 minutes after her son. “He was in and out (of consciousness).”

Haynes eventually was taken to the intensive care unit.

“I felt drowsy and didn’t know what was going on,” he said. “The only thing that kept me calm was hearing my mom and my coach telling me everything was OK.”

“I’ve prayed pretty hard in my lifetime, but never with quite the same energy than when I was on the way to the hospital,” said the 34-year-old Coleman. “Once I heard his voice, that was the best definition of relief I’ve ever experienced. His words were kind of slow and slurred, but I didn’t care as long as he was talking.

“To see someone go from being a happy-go-lucky 15-year-old to someone hanging on for life, that’s how fragile life can be,” Coleman went on. “We prayed several times and told him we were praying for him and that, no matter what, it was going to be OK. We told him we weren’t going anywhere and he was not alone.”

“Thanks to Gage and Donna Lemoine,” said Pineville Principal Karl Carpenter, “we have a 15-year-old male who will celebrate Christmas with his family as opposed to being in a tragic situation.”

Haynes was sent last week from Rapides to Children’s Hospital in New Orleans for tests.

“They did several tests, but didn’t find anything wrong,” said Mrs. Haynes, whose husband, Calvin Sr., a former Alcorn State offensive lineman and Mississippi junior high basketball coach, died in 1997 at age 45 of a heart attack.

“They put a defibrillator in Monday to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” Mrs. Haynes continued, “and since everything went well with that, we can go home.”

Mrs. Haynes said because of her husband’s death, she sent her son to a doctor for a physical last August, noting he was “cleared to play football and all sports.”

Coleman said he didn’t leave Haynes’ side the night he suffered from cardiac arrhythmia until both his mother and the doctor told him he would be OK, after which he returned home to Natchitoches and “promptly hugged my kids.”

“The next morning,” Coleman said, “he called me and said, ‘Coach, I wanted to check on you, are you OK?’ That’s the kind of kid he is. With all that he’d been through, he was calling to check on me. I kind of laughed and said, ‘Yeah, Calvin, I’m OK as long as you’re OK.’”

“I just feel blessed,” said Haynes. “I’m thankful there were people at the game who knew CPR and could help me. I’m happy that their school had (an AED) that shocked my heart. If they hadn’t, no telling what would’ve happened.”

And he’s had plenty of time to think about that.

“I’ve thought about how I am lucky to live and have a second chance,” he said. “Instead of taking life for granted, I will appreciate each day from now on.”

A man’s life was saved in Saskatoon thanks to an automated external defibrillator on-site at a local hockey rink.

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According to MD Ambulance, paramedics responded Sunday around 11:20 a.m. to the Agri-Twins Arena, where a 58-year-old man collapsed while playing hockey. The staff at the arena called 911 and then, with the help of a licensed practical nurse who happened to be in the building, defibrillated the man.

When paramedics arrived, the 58 year old was breathing on his own. He was taken by ambulance to Royal University Hospital in stable condition.

“This was a complete team effort and a perfect example of how the chain of survival in cardiac arrests works,” said MD Ambulance spokesperson Troy Davies in a statement.

“From the players recognizing the patient in cardiac arrest, calling 911, MD Ambulance dispatchers talking them through CPR, the rink staff grabbing the AED and shocking the patient, and finally paramedics stabilizing the patient en route to hospital – if one of those links drops, this patient would not have survived.”