First Aid Corps

A father in his mid-50s who collapsed on his way to watch his daughter’s softball game at Lakeland High School on Wednesday was brought back to life by a trainer and a coach using a portable defibrillator.

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The father, who had lost consciousness and wasn’t breathing when Lakeland athletic trainer Amanda Tiffany and John Jay High School lacrosse coach Patrick Chiappetta rushed to his aid, was recovering in stable condition Thursday at Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla, school officials said.

“There is a family that is not mourning the loss of a father today because people acted, and that is heavy stuff,” said Chiappetta’s boss, Christian McCarthy, the athletic director for the Katonah-Lewisboro school district. “Their decision to act saved a life, and there is no greater classroom lesson than that.”

It was one of those busy after-school weekdays in spring with multiple games in progress across a single campus, and scores of spectators, players and school officials on the scene.

The man was headed to the junior varsity softball game and was just outside the fence surrounding the school’s all-purpose athletic field when everything stopped. MaryLu Fiori, a Lakeland field monitor, saw the man collapse and yelled for help.

“I knew my AED was at the end of the bench so I grabbed it and I ran as fast as I could across the field,” said Chiappetta, 29, John Jay’s junior varsity girls lacrosse coach and a father of two. “He was in bad shape, on his back, so I hopped the fence and the Lakeland trainer already had his shirt pulled up.”

“I opened my AED and the trainer put the pads on him and pushed the button,” Chiappetta said .

The device can scan for irregular heartbeats and deliver a shock to restore a healthy rhythm. It was enough to bring the man, whom officials declined to identify, back to consciousness.

As Tiffany and Chiappetta were at the man’s side, Yorktown police Officer Larry Paniccia, the school’s resource officer, called 911 and joined in the lifesaving efforts. Mohegan Lake ambulance responded and took him from the scene.

“He is awake and speaking with his family,” Lakeland High School Principal Lorrie Yurish said Thursday. “The family is so grateful.”

A high-school softball player found the mandatory CPR class she took the day came in handy — she used her new skills to save a teammate’s life.

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Taylor Bisbee and her friends on the High Point, N.C.,Wesleyan Academy softball team were doing some base running. Suddenly eighth-grader Paris White collapsed.

Taylor Bisbee the Saviour

“It was scary to see her fall like that. Cause I wasn’t expecting it,” Bisbee told MyFox8.

One of White’s teammates dialed 911. But Bisbee was the one who immediately jumped into action and started performing CPR.

“I just knelt down next to her and I just started,” Bisbee said.

“It was really scary for me because it was the difference between life and death.”

Minutes later, staff arrived on the scene with a defibrillator to get White’s heart beating again, according to Coach Donald Brewer.

An ambulance took White to Duke University Hospital. It is unclear what caused the young girl’s collapse, but she is expected to make a full recovery.

The experience has encouraged the fast-thinking Bisbee to pursue a career in medicine.

A elementary school nurse says she is thankful that her school was equipped with an automated external defibrillator after reviving a custodian who collapsed today in the hallway near her office.

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Walter Haigh Elementary School nurse Tara Hayes said she was in her office when she saw the school’s custodian collapse.

“It was scary, and it was someone I work with and love,” Hayes said.

As the 62-year-old began to lose consciousness, paraprofessional Jomarie Curtis carefully lowered him to the floor in the hallway right next to the nurse office.

“It was the most intense thing I’ve ever seen,” Curtis said.

As Curtis laid the man down, nurse Hayes grabbed the school’s automated external defibrillator (AED) and began to resuscitate him.

“I put it on him, shocked him, and then did CPR, then shocked him again. When I shocked him the second time, his color came back and he knew who I was,” Hayes said.

The school received the AED from the Salem Rotary Club about six years ago, but this is the first time it’s been used in a real-life situation.

“It was a miracle,” Hayes said.

The custodian is recovering in the hospital.

Hayes said she’s been a nurse for 18 years and had never encountered any situation as serious.

“I think every school should have and be trained to use AEDs,” Hayes said.

Officials say a 44-year-old Southeast man went into cardiac arrest—which prompted those around him to deliver an electric shock via an automated external defibrillator (AED)—while attending a recent event on the Brewster Central School District campus.

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Members of the Brewster Fire Department (BFD) and the New York State Police responded to the incident around 4:25 p.m. Wednesday. The man, who survived, was reportedly standing in the bleachers, near the turf field, when he fell to the floor in an unconscious state and began convulsing.

Half a dozen parents—many of whom just happen to work or volunteer in the emergency response field—attending the same event rushed to the man’s side. A teacher removed the young children from the area, as the man was shaking and vomiting. His breathing was irregular, witnesses told Patch.

By the time police and BFD members arrived on the scene, the group had used the AED to deliver electric shocks in an attempt to steady the man’s heart rhythm. One parent sprinted hundreds of yards to one of the schools—and back—to retrieve the device. Another ran to his vehicle and grabbed a face mask used to administer CPR. Others stayed with the man and delivered chest compressions.

“Everybody started to do something,” Southeast resident Paul Castle, a member of the FDNY, said. “It was a big group effort, like a well-oiled machine.”

Officials transported the man, who was still unconscious, to Putnam Hospital Center in Carmel. Later that night, he was airlifted to Westchester Medical Center in Valhalla. He had reportedly regained consciousness by that time.

“He was lucky. It could’ve been much worse,” Castle said.

Mike Frey, a Putnam Lake resident and FDNY member who was also on the scene, said the use of the AED was “huge.” The man was not without oxygen for very long either, he added.

“It’s always nice when you can help someone,” Frey said. “I’m just happy he’s OK.”

Neither Castle nor Frey knew the man very well. Some of the other parents who helped were strangers, too.

An Evergreen High School senior owes her life to some quick-acting adults, and an automated external defibrillator in the school that got her heart beating again.

Tuesday morning, the unidentified senior collapsed in a secretary’s office. Four adults at the school immediately jumped into action.

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School nurse Debbie Fowler pulled the defibrillator from the cabinet and began CPR.

Dean of students Marshall Pendleton said the girl had no pulse, and chest compressions weren’t enough to bring it back.

“Within, I think, 13 seconds we determined that a shock was recommended, so we cleared and allowed that to proceed,” Pendleton said.

It took three shocks to bring back a good heartbeat, he said, adding that the student’s prognosis was good and she was recovering.

He said similar events had happened twice before in the school within the last two years. In each case, the student made a full recovery.

Pendleton credits the quick actions of the faculty and the ease of using an AED.

“You look at a picture, you open a bag, you put two stickers on somebody’s chest. That’s it,” he said. “The machine does the rest. Everybody would be comfortable doing that.”