First Aid Corps

Emergency medical workers were called to Alumni Soccer Field at Davidson College Saturday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. after a report that a youth-soccer official had collapsed during a game.

Davidson Fire Chief Jeff Almond said the man apparently had a heart attack and was not breathing.

As emergency personnel arrived, a doctor and a nurse who were attending the game were performing CPR on the man.

Emergency workers took over, continuing CPR.

They administered a shock using an automated defibrillator, and his heart returned to a normal rhythm, the chief said.

The man was taken by ambulance to Presbyterian Hospital in Huntersville, where he was treated briefly. He was then taken on to Presbyterian Hospital’s main location in Charlotte for further treatment.

Beyond that, his condition was not known late Saturday afternoon.

Paul Insco was a referee working the 1996 McMinn County-McMinn Central game.

Paul Insco the Survivor ( third from left )

All of a sudden, Inscho suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground in what was a scary incident for everybody.

The football game was quickly forgotten as Inscho’s life hung in the balance.

Fortunately, Dr. David Byrd and Dr. Craig Riley were at the game that night and provided the medical assistance Insco needed.

“From Friday night to the next Tuesday I don’t remember anything so a lot of what I’m telling you is what others have told me,” Inscho said.

“I know it was near the end of the first half and apparently I just dropped to the ground. Dr. Riley said I was likely dead before I hit the ground. Dr. Riley and Dr. Byrd were there and after 15 or 20 minutes of CPR and seven shocks with a defibrillator, they got a heart beat.”

Insco was rushed to Woods Memorial Hospital and later transferred to the University of Tennessee hospital. At UT hospital, it was discovered he had 95 percent blockage of one his ventricles leading to his heart and had an emergency angioplasty.

Inscho is now a TSSAA referee supervisor while Dr. Byrd and Dr. Riley both have private practices. Insco went back onto the field as a referee in 1998 and last year became a TSSAA game officials supervisor.

“(AED) It’s something that you hope you don’t have to use, but you have it if you need it,” Inscho said. “I didn’t know if either Central or McMinn had an AED and I’m glad they do now. Dr. Riley and Dr. Byrd, and I’m sure there were others as well, are the heroes in all this.”

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

Phil Nusser Saved

Refereeing a basketball game at Ellinwood High School on Jan. 6, Phil Nusser collapsed on the gym floor. His heart stopped beating, and there was no pulse.

Nusser had gone into cardiac arrest.

Billinger, a Washburn University freshman, happened to be home from college for semester break and attended the game.

“I was talking to a friend and heard people yelling and a whistle blowing,” Billinger said.

An off-duty registered EMT for the past six months, she jumped into action.

“There was another EMT, a firefighter, several nurses and my dad, who’s a highway patrolman,” Billinger said of people who rushed to help Nusser. “I called 911 and got the defibrillator, attached it and followed the steps.”

She shocked Nusser’s heart and brought him back quickly. It was the first time she had used the device on a person.

“I didn’t think about it,” Billinger said. “I was just worried about the ref.”

Whisked out of the gym and flown by helicopter to Hutchinson’s Promise Regional Medical Center, doctors removed a blood clot and inserted a stent.

That he survived, with no damage to his heart, is nothing less than a miracle, says Nusser, a St. John resident, who is the Stafford County Roads and Bridge supervisor.

A week later, he has fully recovered and has returned to work, he said. Tuesday night, he was back in the same gymnasium to watch a niece from Lyons play basketball against the Ellinwood girls.

“The stars were lined up in my favor,” he said. “This could have happened at work where I’m by myself a lot, or it could have happened on the living room couch.”

Nusser was thankful he was in Ellinwood, where they have AEDs, when it happened.

“I woke up in the gym,” he said. “I was in the best place to be if something like that was going to happen.”

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

Dr. Ken Johnson and referee Danny Rogers

Rogers, 61, was thirsty and walked across the field to get some water. That’s the last thing he remembers.

 “I remember a black cloud coming over me,” he said. “I woke up subconsciously and heard this voice. It didn’t sound like a man or a woman, but it said, ‘You’re going to be all right.’ That’s when I sat right up.”

The voice was that of Johnson, the team physician for Laurence Manning Academy.

I was on the sidelines and saw a referee coming towards me,” he said.

“He kind of just fell down. It looked like somebody had poured a bucket of water on him when I got to him. He was in full cardiac arrest. I began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and one of the other coaches started chest compression.”

Johnson said he normally has a defibrillator, but because Laurence Manning was the visiting team, they didn’t have one that night. It was at least five minutes before the ambulance arrived.

“By keeping Danny’s circulation and oxygen level up, his heart started re-circulating, and he came to,” Johnson said. “He doesn’t remember any of it. He wanted to get up and get back on the field, but I told him he wasn’t going anywhere except to the closest emergency room.”

“They all got to see what CPR was like for real,” he said. “Several of the coaches said they had seen it on TV, but never in person. CPR is a life-saver, and people need to learn how to do it.

“They saw it save a man’s life. … This man was not with us, he was gone. Probably for 5, 6 minutes he had no pulse, no respiration, but by doing CPR, he had no brain damage. He actually didn’t really have a heart attack because we kept the blood circulating.”

“We got to him within 10 seconds after he collapsed,” he said. “I think that was key – that we were so fast on the scene, which gave his heart time to start beating again. I just thank God that he’s still here.”

And what’s even more amazing is Rogers had never experienced any heart problem up to that point. There was no history of heart attacks in his family, either.

“I had a physical two months before this happened,” he said. “My cholesterol was fine and everything else was great. I run a martial arts school and I stay in good shape.” Johnson, who lives in Manning, reiterated that CPR saves lives.

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

Gary Gustafson Saved

With 5:03 to play in the third quarter Tuesday night, Gustafson was standing on the side of the court at Collinsville High when junior Ben Brackney made a free throw for Lincoln, which was playing Althoff at the championship game of the Collinsville-Schnucks Holiday Classic.

Gustafson said he began feeling poorly moments before Brackney attempted his next free throw, which he missed. As Gustafson ran back down the court, he stumbled and fell about 10 feet from where fans were sitting in the first row of the bleachers.

“I felt some kind of funny feeling coming on when Terry called the foul,” Gustafson said, referring to one of his partners, Terry Gallaher. Kevin (Pawlow, the other official) said I had a dazed look on my face and my skin was chalky.

“I blew the whistle to try to stop the (second) free-throw attempt because I knew I was in trouble and needed some help, but neither Terry nor Kevin could get to me fast enough. I knew something bad was going down. After I blew the whistle, I don’t remember anything else.”

Tournament officials and other people, including some nurses, rushed to Gustafson’s aid. CPR was administered and an external heart defibrillator was used, and Gustafson regained consciousness. Emergency paramedics arrived soon after.

After about 20 minutes, Gustafson was taken off the court on a stretcher, rushing him to Anderson Hospital, as the crowd, estimated at more than 2,000, stood and applauded. Gustafson raised his left hand to indicate to the fans that he was OK, which he said Wednesday he didn’t recall doing.

The game continued after about a 20-minute delay with the two remaining officials, Terry Gallaher and Kevin Pawlow, and a replacement for Gustafson, Bo Kratschmer. Althoff went on to win 58-51 to capture its first tournament title.

“From our perspective, Terry and I were scared,” said Pawlow, who lives in Collinsville. “We knew something was wrong. We saw the look in his eye and he tried to get a timeout. We just watched him collapse. It’s not a good feeling when one of your best friends, cohorts or teammates goes down.”

“When they pulled out the defibrillator, that scared me,” he said. “Some of our fellow officials have had heart attacks. When they said he wasn’t breathing and they kept the defibrillator out, that scared us. We thought maybe he had a heart attack and died right there. There was some foam coming out of his mouth. It scared us.”

“There’s been other officials in this area over the past years that have collapsed of a heart attack,” said Gallaher, of Belleville. “When he first went down, I couldn’t tell if he was breathing or not. That was the scary part.”

Crusaders coach Greg Leib said he and his coaching staff and players huddled when they were in their locker room.

“We went in there and prayed for Gary and prayed for the people working on him,” Leib said. “The kids were shook up in there. Saying a prayer together helped work things through. It helped them sort it out and gave them faith that the Lord would help Gary.

Gustafson credited Collinsville Fire Chief Pete Stehman, who was among the crowd. Stehman for years was a volunteer at the tournament.

“He’s the one that took over, and there were a bunch of nurses down there,” said Gustafson, a 1973 graduate of Carlyle High. “Someone was there to give me mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and CPR.”

“It was a big team effort,” Stehman said by phone Thursday afternoon. “I was just one person there. Those defibrillators are absolute live-savers. That was a textbook save. It restored the heart beat quickly and he responded quickly. It was a great outcome. God was looking out for a person.”

“The people saw he was responding,” said Stehman, who is also a paramedic. “He was moving around and responding and the crowd saw that. We knew he was responsive down on the floor and it was great for the crowd to see that and sense that.”

“I’m doing better than what I thought I was going to be doing, I guess,” said Gustafson. “It was pretty scary. I guess I was gone for a while.

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

Hadden Graham Saved

Hadden Graham, 55, who is the former treasurer and chairman of Marlborough Rugby Club, was in charge of the Dorset and Wiltshire League match at Westbury Sports Centre when he collapsed after 35 minutes. 

Westbury players Paul Jones, who works as a nurse, and Matt Inseal, a trained first responder, used a defibrillator and carried out CPR on the pitch.

The Wiltshire Air Ambulance arrived at the scene at about 3.30pm and took the Marlborough man to the Royal United Hospital in Bath.

County president of the Dorset and Wiltshire RFU, Ron Jones, whose son was one of the players to give first aid to Mr Graham, said: “The club are very pleased and proud with the way the two players acted.

“Although it was my son who was involved I don’t know much about the incident because I haven’t spoken to him as he’s just returned from his honeymoon. All I know is that my son and his team-mate performed CPR on the man before the air ambulance arrived.

“Its just one of those things. I’ve never heard of a referee or player suffering a heart attack on the pitch but I’m sure it has happened before.

Charlie Sheppy, Marlborough Rugby Club Chairman, is a close friend of Mr Graham. He said: “Thank God there was a medic on the pitch playing and he knew there was a defibrillator at the Westbury Leisure Centre and they administered CPR and got his heart going again.”

But on Monday Mr Sheppy said: “I understand he is now awake and aware of what is going on around him.”

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

The referee, Fred Heckman of Center Moriches, was running to see a play in the game about 5:30 p.m. when he collapsed and began convulsing, according to witnesses.

An automated external defibrillator, or AED, was in the school’s hallway near the gym and Richie King, a physical education teacher and coach who was working as a security staffer during the game, sprinted to get it.

Randy Cherill, a trainer for the high school sports program, and Judy Bennett, an EMT from Amagansett, performed CPR until Mr. Vasile-Cozzo and John Crupp, a coach, applied the pads from the AED to Mr. Heckman’s chest and attached the leads, according to Ms. Cherill.

The device, which is voice-activated and has voice instructions, told the men to push a button on the machine, sending a shock to the victim’s heart.

Ms. Cherill said she and Ms. Bennett performed CPR again for a couple of minutes and Mr. Heckman began breathing again.

“He came back within a few seconds,” Mr. Vas said.

EMTs from East Hampton and police arrived a few minutes later. After EMTs arrived, Mr. Heckman was sitting up on the gurney and able to talk, Mr. Vasile-Cozze said.

“He was unconscious, had no pulse and wasn’t breathing. It was very emotional. I’ve never seen anything like it, it was very scary,” said Mr. Vasile-Cozzo. “Something like this puts everything in perspective. And to see the staff respond the way they did was wonderful.”

Ms. Cherill said she had been so fired up with adrenaline during the emergency she only vaguely remembers what she did. “You just jump into action and do what you have to do,” she said.

“It was the first time I or Randi had to use one,” Mr. Vas said. “I’m not a doctor but I think it saved his life.”

Mr. Heckman was taken to Southampton Hospital, where he was treated and, on Saturday, transferred in fair condition to Stony Brook University Hospital, a spokeswoman for Southampton Hospital said. He was still listed as a patient in the Stony Brook hospital Tuesday.

Updated 12th December 2008

“He went home from the hospital on Sunday. It’s good to know he’s okay.” Mr Vas added.