First Aid Corps

Most of us don’t think about breathing. But New Canaan Police Officer Jason Kim will forever remember a single breath from a 14-year-old boy in Waveny Park whose life he helped to save.

Officer Jason Kim the Saviour

“It was a deep breath. It was the loudest breath I’ve ever heard,” Kim said of the first sound the teenager from Florida made as he recovered after passing out last Thursday in Waveny Park during a race.

Kim, a five-year New Canaan police veteran, responded to the park at about 8 p.m. last Thursday for an unknown medical emergency near the Spencer’s Run dog park. A woman flagged him down and said the boy was not breathing and had no pulse. A woman who works at Stamford Hospital, who Kim did not know, had started performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Kim used an automatic external defibrillator, carried in every New Canaan police car, to restart the boy’s heart. He followed the machine’s instructions on shocking the boy. “All (of his) muscles contracted at once,” Kim said. The machine then instructed Kim to continue with compressions. Kim stopped after he felt the boy’s heart beating and heard him breathe.

Kim admitted the scene was “surreal” and “scary” at times, but he said he had a job to do and focused on helping the boy until paramedics arrived. Kim said he was relieved that the treatment worked and that the boy responded. He was taken to Norwalk Hospital for treatment and later transferred to Westchester Medical Center. “Thank God for that training, and it worked out that the way it did,” Kim said. “You just do it because that’s what you’re supposed to do.”

Although Kim is acknowledged as a hero, the officer gives credit to everyone who helped to revive the boy and the medical professionals who cared for him on the way to the hospital. And as the father of a 2-year-old son, Kim says he’s thankful that the boy is still alive.

Saturday morning was hot and muggy, and Hart Park was full of people dancing, performing feats of strength and wheezing into bagpipes at the Scottish Fest Highland Games – many of them wearing wool clothing. It seems that something was almost bound to happen.

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Jim Fork was doing his normal duty on an abnormal day as one of three city custodians who maintain the park from dawn until after dark seven days a week.

Jim Fork the Saviour

On Saturdays, “I’m the only person on the grounds from 8 until 4,” Fork said. “We’re involved with all facets of the park, many that go beyond the janitorial. And I guess I encountered one of those last Saturday.”

Fork was inside the Muellner Building, walking up the hallway toward the custodians’ office to get a drink, when he ran into Dave Berger, one of the Games coordinators.

“Dave just kind of remarked that someone in the event was having a heart attack,” Fork said. “I said, ‘What, somebody’s having a heart attack in my park?’”

Fork reversed course and headed for the lobby, where he ran into another event organizer who was calling out for assistance and, in particular, for an emergency defibrillator if there was one on the premises.

Turns out there was, about 20 feet away but inside the locked doors of the Hart Park Senior Center. And the man had bumped into the only person who had a key.

“In my mind this is getting a little blown out of proportion,” Fork said of his role, “because all I did was hand him the defibrillator. I handed it to him and he ran, and I ran, just to see if there was anything more I could do. I came into this scene of a mass of people.”

A 49-year-old bagpiper from Northern Illinois lay on the ground, already receiving CPR, but his heart had stopped and he was not responding.

“He was ash-white,” Fork said. “A larger man. They shocked him twice, and the second time his heart started. I saw some color come back, and then the paramedics arrived, they got him on the back board and took him to the hospital.

“I understand he was discharged Sunday.”

Fork was only one of a number of people whose actions helped save a life, and that line stretches beyond the park.

“There were police on the grounds, and they made the call to the medical unit,” Fork said. “There was the EMT (emergency medical technician) with the Games – ‘Flash’ Gordon – and another guy who must also have been an EMT who was just riding through the park with his children, and he pitched in, too.

“I just kind of stood there. I was part of a chain of events. But I could have been out in the park. I had been out in the park. The morning was passing like lightning, it was pandemonium.

“I guess I was in the right place at the right time.”

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.

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.”

At 10:10 a.m. Thursday, an 80-year-old Owego man and his wife were walking on the Rail Trail when the man experienced heart trouble and fell.

Sue Driver, an employee of Catalyst Manufacturing alongside the trail, saw the incident and immediately ran over.

She began CPR and was aided by town Parks Director James Bukowski, who also witnessed the incident from the Coal House, which the town is renovating.

Despite their efforts, the two were unable to revive the man, who wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse.

Police officer William Serkiz arrived with a defibrillator and shocked the man.

The victim’s heartbeat resumed and he was able to breathe on his own.

“The machine was working very well,” Butler said.

After the incident, Serkiz talked on the phone with the man, who had been taken to Wilson Regional Medical Center in Johnson City.