First Aid Corps

Rob Farnfield, 54, of Hackney Road in Matlock, was refereeing a match at Matlock Rugby Club last November when he had a heart attack and collapsed.

View First Aid Corps World Map of AED Locations in a larger map

Fortunately, two off-duty nurses were watching the game and gave him valuable resuscitation (CPR) until the First Responders arrived with a defibrillator, a portable piece of life saving equipment that delivers an electric shock through the chest wall to help restore the heart’s normal rhythm.

Rob Farnfield the Survivor

He was then taken by air ambulance to the University Hospital Coventry.

Rob, who was unconscious throughout most of the ordeal, was told he was resuscitated seven times.

He said: “There were about ten minutes to go in the game when I collapsed on the pitch. There was no warning or any pain. It was as if someone had just turned the power off.”

He added: “I felt fine beforehand. I’m reasonably fit, don’t have blood pressure or the things you would associate with a heart problems

After having a stent fitted, Rob spent five days in hospital recovering before taking on cardiac rehabilitation at the Whitworth Centre in Darley Dale.

He now takes part in gym sessions especially for heart patients, at Arc Leisure Matlock and within less than a year has gone from being able to walk just a few feet to walking from Matlock to Derby.

Rob has not refereed at Matlock Rugby Club since his heart attack but has been to the club base, at Cromford Meadows, many times since and the charity has paid for a defibrillator for the club house.

Crowds watched as Gabriel Tumelty collapsed during a senior Gaelic football match between Burren and Longstone at Pairc Esler in Newry on Sunday.

Ex-chairman of Longstone GAA, Hugh Rodgers, who was at the match on Sunday, said he saw Mr Tumelty suddenly collapse while running.

“The game was coming very close to the end and as he was running he fell flat on his face.

“I thought he had tripped but it became clear he was in grave danger. It became quickly apparent it was serious,” he said.

“It took a few minutes for it to transfer through that it wasn’t a broken ankle, and therefore it (the match) would be cancelled.”

The 46-year-old from Ballykinler was treated on the pitch by medical staff at around 9pm. It is the second time in two weeks that the device has been used pitch-side in Northern Ireland.

As recently as last month a defibrillator was used on Chris McNeill (17), after he collapsed while playing in a Milk Cup match in Portstewart on July 25.

On Sunday medics from both teams as well as three doctors watching the game came to the referee’s assistance when he collapsed during the last few minutes of injury time. One Burren team member who works as a dentist placed Mr Tumelty in the recovery position before the defibrillator was used to revive him.

He was rushed to nearby Daisy Hill Hospital before being transferred to Craigavon Area hospital yesterday afternoon where he is now in a stable condition.

Mr Rodgers said he didn’t believe Mr Tumelty suffered from a serious health problem and added that referees at senior level would have a high degree of fitness.

On May 8, a father volunteering as a field umpire for the Werribee Districts Football Club’s under-9s team when he collapsed and went into cardiac arrest during a game at Werribee South. Mr Steven Kelly, 36, had stepped in to umpire the game between Werribee Districts and Old Westbourne at the last minute.

He collapsed during the first quarter of the game at Price Reserve in Werribee South. Children were ushered from the field.

His son was playing for Werribee Districts’ under-9s, in the Western Region Football League and his wife and daughter on the sidelines.

Natalie Kelly said CFA career firefighter Paul Turner and former North Melbourne and Footscray footballer Keenan Reynolds rushed to her husband’s side.

“I’ve spoken to Mr Turner and Keenan’s wife to thank them and tell them how grateful we are,” Ms Kelly said.

Ambulance Victoria intensive care paramedic Mark Maclean said the men did “a great job performing CPR, enabling paramedics to prepare to shock the man’s heart using a defibrillator”.

A critically ill Mr Kelly was taken to hospital, where he remained yesterday in a stable condition.

Mr Turner said saving him was a “team effort”.

He had just left the ground – his son played in an earlier game – when a parent called him back.

“I got there within minutes and Keenan, who had a son playing in that game, was with the fellow, who wasn’t breathing, and we started CPR,” Mr Turner said.

Mr Kelly should be discharged from hospital this week.

His family has thanked footy dads CFA career firefighter Paul Turner and former North Melbourne and Footscray footballer Keenan Reynolds for helping save his life.

Two weeks after suffering a heart attack on a basketball court, a local high school referee is thanking those who saved his life.

View First Aid Corps World Map of AED Locations in a larger map

“Well, first, I was a very lucky man to have those volunteers to come out of the stands who were trained,” said referee Craig Evans.

Evans said he remembers the heart attack coming on quickly while he was officiating a game at Raymond High School.

“I made a violation call, and the ball was put back into play, and we’re going back up court, and after I came over midcourt, everybody started getting very blurry, and that’s the last I remember,” he said.

When he collapsed during the fourth quarter of the junior varsity girls basketball game, two nurses and an EMT who were in the crowd, along with a sports trainer, went to his aid.

Doctors said those four were critical to helping save Evans’ life. They started CPR and used an automated external defibrillator that the school had on hand. Paramedics then took it from there.

“They gave him medicines that patients don’t always get,” said Dennis Mechem of Exeter Hospital. “They gave him heparin, which stops clotting of his blocked artery and did it immediately in the back of the ambulance, 20 minutes before he got to the hospital.”

Seventy-two minutes after Evans was in an ambulance, doctors had reopened his blocked artery.

“Just the outpouring of support, the best wishes that I have and the feeling that there’s so many wonderful people who are giving and caring for others has just been tremendous for me,” he said.

A father of two, Evans gets emotional thinking of his rescuers, including one he has been able to thank over the phone.

“I don’t know if I have a friend for life, but I have a hero, one of my heroes,” he said.

Thursday’s girl’s basketball game at O’Gorman High School seemed like just another contest in a long basketball season. But, when the game reached halftime, the action off the court got much more attention than anything on the court.

View First Aid Corps World Map of AED Locations in a larger map

Referee Dan Sudbeck was part of a three-man crew working Thursday’s O’Gorman-Yankton basketball game. He retreated to the coach’s lounge at halftime and sat down in this chair. But soon, his fellow refs noticed Sudbeck was slumping to the floor. Trainer Rochelle Lauret came in from the other room with the school’s defibrillator.

“I had the shirt cut straight up and had the AED on him immediately,” Lauret said. “And then, the machine just takes care of everything after that. It assesses whether there’s a shockable heart rhythm, so it just took care of it and told me what to do basically.”

“We stood back and pushed the button, and all it took was one shot,” said Lauret, in her 12th year as O’Gorman’s athletic trainer. “We continued to do compressions, but you could tell he was breathing on his own after that. When the EMTs got there, he was already answering questions about his medical history.”

“Our referees’ room is five feet from the defibrilator in our training room, so the logistics were fine, but just having them in the building, I can see now that can save lives,” O’Gorman athletic director Steve Kueter said.

Kueter says Lauret’s been a trainer for the Knights for more than a decade. And her quick thinking made the best out of a very bad situation.

“I usually have it on the bench with me at the game and it’s underneath my chair,” Lauret said. “But that night, I had not taken it out there with me for some reason. And so, I just grabbed it, I was probably 15 feet away from him with my AED.”

O’Gorman has three defibrillators on campus, provided by local health partners. While Lauret’s been trained with them, Thursday night was the first time she had had ever used one in an emergency.

“The further away from it I get, the more freaked out I get,” Lauret said. “But I also told my family I want to carry it with me everywhere I go. I just feel like I have to have it with me now because I’m like, you never know.”

The scene on Thursday night not only reminded people of the importance of a defibrillator, but of life in general.

“It makes you rethink a lot of things,” Kueter said. “And the idea of providing the equipment and providing the training has always been there, but now it’s just become much more of a priority in our minds from last night how good that is.”

The Sudbeck family released a statement Friday afternoon thanking everyone for their prayers and concerns. Dan underwent bypass surgery and is currently resting.

“I sat down, maybe a minute or two and it felt like I was going to faint,” Sudbeck said.

In fact he remembers everything up until that point, up until his heart just stopped.

He had no chest pain, no shortness of breath. The next thing he remembers is commotion in the coach’s lounge and people asking if he knew where he was.

“I said ‘yea I’m at OG, the score is 29-28.’ And then one of them said, ‘do you remember getting shocked?’ And I said, ‘shocked? No I don’t remember getting shocked!’” Sudbeck said.

“I couldn’t have been in a better situation. I mean I’ve got two qualified trainers that are there, we’ve got a defibrillator right there. I’m two miles from the Heart Hospital. I mean the stars were aligned perfectly that night,” Sudbeck said.

“I think without that AED, I probably would not be here,” Sudbeck said.

Coincidentally, working with the Avera Heart Hospital and Sioux Falls Fire Rescue, Sudbeck’s wife Pat had been instrumental in getting AEDs placed in schools, churches and businesses and teaching people how to use them.

“I always knew my training would impact somebody I knew or somebody I loved. But I never dreamt in a hundred years that would be my own husband,” Pat said.