First Aid Corps

She helped save a man’s life after he collapsed during a hockey game, but Rose Wood chalked it up to a defibrillator and team work.

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“My best friend is there on that wall,” the fitness instructor said, pointing to the defibrillator hanging outside the community arenas at the WFCU Centre where she teaches fitness classes and staffs the reception desk.

Rose Wood the Saviour

On Friday at around 8 p.m., she was at the desk when a man ran out of a pickup hockey game telling her to call 911. Another player had collapsed on his way off the ice.

Right away, Wood’s safety training and her people-organizing skills kicked in.

“It was a team effort,” the 54-year-old grandmother of four boys said.

She instructed the other desker to call an ambulance, grabbed the defibrillator off the wall, rushed into the arena to where the man — who she can only describe as in his 40s and little heavy — was lying on the black rubber floor.

“I just did it,” Wood said, describing how she got down on the ground, shouted for help to get the man’s hockey jersey off, and asked a woman nearby to help her put the defibrillator pads on the man’s chest and under his right arm.

The other 20 or so people were told to stand back when she pressed the button on the defibrillator to release the electric charge.

“He jumped,” Wood said about the shock sent to the man’s heart. “I had never seen that before.”

She gave mouth-to-mouth while she instructed the woman nearby — whom Wood said she did not recognize, but would like to thank for her help — to do chest compressions on the man.

“It seemed like hours,” Wood said. “I yelled, ‘Where is that ambulance?’”

One player was posted to the arena entrance to hail the ambulance, a second was given the task of clearing a path in the crowd for the paramedics, and a third was told to help emergency workers cross the ice safely.

Doug Sweet, who manages the arena, said he could not confirm who the man was or where he was taken to hospital, but he said he believed he was taken to a hospital in Detroit.

“We know he’s doing well,” Sweet said, adding that all the staff are very proud of how Wood managed the situation.

“I just bawled my eyes out,” Wood said, describing her reaction once the paramedics took over. “I couldn’t stop,” she said, adding that she was still shaking a little on Monday night.

Wood regularly goes through safety training as a fitness instructor, but she has never had to put her skills into practice in real life, she said, despite having worked in this field since 1987.

“I never want to do it again, but if I have to, I have no qualms,” she said. In fact, she added jokingly, she wants to find out just how long the whole process took so that if she has to do it again, she can beat her time.

Wood joked that the defibrillator is the real hero of the story and thinks she might give the little machine a name, but the experience has made her more aware of where defibrillators are in public places, whether it’s at the mall where she was running errands on the weekend, or at the arena where her grandchildren play hockey in Belle River.

The arena has eight defibrillators, Sweet said, adding that since it opened, there have been six heart attacks.

With thousands of people attending games and playing games each night, he said, it’s almost inevitable one will happen at some point, but thanks to the defibrillators and trained staff, the arena is prepared for this type of emergency.

The staff are trained annually in CPR and defibrillator use and undergo quarterly emergency training.

“Everybody in these situations works as a team,” Sweet said.

Two local community center employees who were honored Thursday for saving the life of a Sioux Falls man with a defibrillator said they were simply doing their job.

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Trey Bren and Kelsey Remund, both part-time community center recreation leaders, were working at Morningside Community Center on Dec. 4 when they spotted Vance Magee, a 21-year-old Sioux Falls resident, who had fallen to the floor at mid-court while playing basketball.

Kelsey Remund & Trey Bren the Saviours

Magee was experiencing a cardiac arrest.

After he got back on his feet and was able to be taken off the court, he started seizing.

The pair acted quickly, calling 911 and using the public access defibrillator and CPR to save the unresponsive Magee’s life.

All Parks and Recreation employees receive CPR training, officials said Thursday at the ceremony honoring the pair, and that training was a large factor in Bren and Remund’s quick response, they said.

“We’ve always done the training with the CPR and everything, and never once did I think I’d actually have to use it,” Remund said. “The training helped a lot.

Bren and Remund were given plaques Thursday in recognition of their fast action, clear thinking and ability to take action.

Vance remembers little of that day, only waking up in the hospital, where he spent six days. Now, he said he feels good and is excited to get back to work.

“I’m just glad to be here right now, it’s kind of hard to realize what I’ve been through,” Magee said. “I just want to say thank you to everybody, thank you.”

Bren and Remund say they were glad they could do their job and help save a life.

“Vance, I don’t want you or your family to think that you owe us anything; we were simply doing our job,” Bren said.

Sioux Falls Mayor Mike Huether said he was proud of the pair.

“Four words: Vance is with us,” said Huether said. “I’m just so proud. I get to do so many great things as mayor, and this is just another one. You two young people , look at the impact you’ve already made.Your moms are proud of you, your dads are proud of you, I’m proud of you, the city is proud of you. Nice job.”

Crawford Best, 72, a professional bassoonist, lifelong runner and peak-bagger, survived an unexpected heart attack that struck while he was in the Glenwood Hot Springs Pool, thanks to quick work by pool lifeguards with CPR and a defibrillator, followed by expert care at Valley View and St. Mary’s hospitals.

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“All those people saved my life. There are no two ways about it,” the Santa Fe, N.M., man said Friday, after taking his daily post-operative half-mile walk as he recuperates at his son’s home in Denver.

Luke Johnson, Brianne Jones, Alicia Whiteside & Travis Newcomb the Saviours

“To me it was truly amazing that I was so lucky, because 99 percent of the time I am not in those circumstances, and I couldn’t have gotten that help. If I’d been driving, or on Quandary Peak, I wouldn’t have made it,” he said.

As it was, Best and his friend Carole Whitney of Denver were wading through the Hot Springs Pool after swimming laps, shortly after 5 p.m. on Saturday, Oct. 29.

“My vision was funny, and Carole says I said something, and then I don’t remember anything until I was being helped onto the gurney and being wheeled into the ambulance,” he recalled.

In between were several tense minutes when no one knew what the outcome might be.

Whitney said Best went underwater, and at first she thought he was clearing his ears.

“But when my internal alarm sounded, I pulled him up and he was unconscious,” she recalled in an email sent to friends and family.

Whitney cried for help, and the pool’s lifeguards kicked into gear, recalled Travis Newcomb, assistant pool manager.

“Ali jumped in and made the rescue. She pulled him out, and we activated our emergency plan,” Newcomb said, referring to lifeguard Alicia Whiteside. “All the lifeguards went into action.”

While lifeguard Luke Johnson called 911, Newcomb grabbed the pool’s automated external defibrillator (AED) and ran to the lodge side of the pool. By the time he got there, lifeguard Brianne Jones was already performing rescue breathing on Best. A doctor who was at the pool at the time performed the chest compressions, and a nurse assisted.

“They went through a cycle of CPR, and then we made sure everything was dry and ready, and got the AED hooked up,” Newcomb said. Best had a pulse, but it was wildly irregular — just the circumstance the AED is made for. The team applied the shock treatment twice and the device successfully corrected Best’s heart rhythm.

“He took some breaths, he became conscious, and pretty soon he could answer questions correctly,” Newcomb said. Best actually sat up while the Glenwood Springs Fire Department’s emergency medical technicians were rolling in the gurney.

By this time, all eyes at the pool were on the dramatic life-and-death action.

“We were trying to block the scene, but it’s pretty out in the open,” Newcomb said. “Everybody could see what was happening. When he came to and was wide awake, then everybody clapped.

“It was pretty incredible to see, somebody who passed away, and he came back to life in front of us,” Newcomb added.

This was his second time to use the AED in a real-life situation, and it has worked both times, Newcomb said.

Best was out of the pool and breathing, but he was still in plenty of hot water.

Once he arrived at the Valley View Hospital emergency room, Dr. Steven Heilbrunn’s angiogram revealed that two of Best’s four main heart arteries were 99 percent blocked, while the other two were 60 to 70 percent blocked.

This was stunning news regarding a man who routinely runs three miles and does 50 to 70 push-ups and sit-ups a day, climbed a 14er this summer, has a low resting pulse and low blood pressure, and was pronounced by his doctor earlier this year as “one of the healthiest people in my practice.”

The blockage was so extreme, Whitney said, that Heilbrunn and his team elected to airlift Best to St. Mary’s Hospital in Grand Junction rather than risk the extra time and elevation gain of a flight to Denver.

“By 8:30 p.m. he was on the helicopter, and he went into surgery at 11 p.m.,” Whitney said.

The quadruple bypass surgery took four and a half hours.

After getting a call, Best’s son, Dr. Alan Best, a neuroradiologist, and daughter-in-law, Dr. Flora Waples, an emergency room doctor, drove over from their home in Denver, met up with Whitney in Glenwood Springs, and continued west to Grand Junction.

“At 9:30 the next morning, we were in his room talking to him,” Whitney said. “He was sitting up and we were having an alert and interesting conversation.”

Best spent two days in intensive care at St. Mary’s, and was discharged on Wednesday. He plans to spend the rest of November recuperating at his son’s home in Denver.

There is no doubt in Owen Munro’s mind – if it wasn’t for the defibrillator and well-trained staff at his local gym, he would not be here today.

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Early this year, the retiree, who was then 69, had just finished his workout at the North Shore YMCA and was about to change when his heart stopped beating.

Strini Naidoo the Saviour & Owen Munro the Survivor

“I had no feeling of discomfort, I just switched off, apparently,” he said yesterday.

Mr Munro, who has been going to the gym twice a week for the past 10 years, said the last thing he remembered was going into a toilet cubicle.

“I was going to get changed and literally I fell inside a cubicle,” he said.

“I had no notion. I didn’t feel unwell at all. I went to the gym and the next thing I knew, I had been several days in hospital.”

Fitness business manager Strini Naidoo was one of the first on the scene and played a key role in saving Mr Munro’s life when he suffered a sudden cardiac arrest – something that is different from a heart attack, which he had suffered 18 years ago and is the reason he goes to the gym.

“Some of the members made a noise that somebody had fallen in the changing room. We all rushed in … and I saw his head popping through the [bottom] of the toilet door. I jumped over the cubicle, ripped the door out and pulled him out,” said Mr Naidoo.

“He was just lying there; no movement, and his heartbeat was almost faint to nothing – it was really in a stressed state.”

While juggling calls to St John, Mr Naidoo and his staff performed CPR and used the defibrillator – bought thanks to a Lion Foundation grant last year – to jolt his heart twice.

St John staff arrived soon after and took Mr Munro to hospital in a serious but stable condition.

He underwent a triple bypass and has a device in his chest so if the same thing happens again it will jump-start his heart.

On the day of the drama, the ambulance driver later returned to the YMCA to compliment Mr Naidoo on doing such a good job.

His actions helped save Mr Munro’s life- although he plays down his role.

“You just act to the best of your instinct and that’s what happened,” Mr Naidoo said.

“I don’t want people to make a big deal out of it; it’s all in a day’s work. I think anyone would do it.

“It doesn’t make me feel proud, it doesn’t make me feel excited, I’m just happy for him to be alive.”

Christopher P. Prezioso, an avid golfer who works as supervising judicial marshal in Waterbury Superior Court, saved Hunt’s life the day after winning the men’s championship tournament Saturday afternoon at Watertown Golf Club’s pro shop.

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“Not only was he the winner, but the hero for the weekend,” said Ian Marshall, head golf professional at the course.

Prezioso said he walked into the shop at about 7 a.m. and greeted Hunt, who was talking to an employee at the counter. While Prezioso was turned away, he heard a noise like something sliding down a wall and turned back to see Hunt face down on the floor.

Yelling for the pro shop staff to call 911, Prezioso rolled Hunt over, noticing his struggle to breathe and his faint pulse.

“Then he just kind of locked up and stopped everything,” Prezioso said.

Prezioso began chest compressions, while staffers and golfers helped cut Hunt’s shirt away and cleared the area for police and ambulance crews. Marshall readied a defibrillator he pulled off the wall about five feet from where Hunt fell.

In between compressions, Prezioso followed the defibrillator’s instructions, shocking Hunt twice before his pulse returned.

By the time the ambulance arrived, Hunt was breathing on his own. He was treated at Waterbury Hospital.

Prezioso, 34, who lives in Southbury, is good friends with Hunt’s son and often plays golf with the Hunts, he said. Judicial marshals are trained annually in first aid, CPR and defibrillation, and Prezioso has served for 16 years, making the experience of saving a life seem routine while it was happening, Prezioso said.

“I actually stayed very calm,” Prezioso said. “It was exactly like how the training videos are.”

Only after they loaded Hunt into the ambulance did the weight of the event kick in, Prezioso said.

“I’m not an emotional person, I never am, and I cried that whole day,” Prezioso said.

Prezioso has already received one award for helping to save a man in 2008 who had a seizure in the courthouse lobby. His latest act of heroism is not surprising, said Anthony Candido, the chief judicial marshal at the courthouse.

“Chris is the kind of person, whether it’s good or bad, you can depend on,” Candido said.

Hunt, 67, lives in the borough with his wife, Diane, and retired last year after 44 years on the borough police force. Two of his sons, Ronald and Steven, live in the borough and work for the same department as sergeant and lieutenant, respectively.

His oldest son, 46-year-old Thomas Hunt Jr., was on his way from his Waterbury home to meet his father for golf Sunday when he got a call about the heart attack.

“The doctor said if it wasn’t for him being in that place, at that time, with people who knew what to do and do immediately, he probably wouldn’t be where he is now,” said Thomas Hunt Jr., who is a counselor supervisor at Garner Correctional Institution in Newtown. “We’re truly blessed.”