First Aid Corps

18-year-old senior Jake Bryan collapsed on January 13th while giving an English presentation.

Students, teachers, and nurses quickly came to Jake’s aid.

“He was not one who typically had seizures, so at that point, we knew that it was an emergency, and I called 9-1-1 and nurse Nancy started monitoring him,” said Bonnie Davis, registered nurse.

Nurse Nancy Bocchino described the scene.

“Lying face down, blood around his head, in the middle of a seizure,” she said.

While the nurses performed CPR on Jake, a teacher ran upstairs to get a defibrillator.

“It was a horrible day, because he was dead on us, he was dead,” added Bocchino.

An automated external defibrillator or AED was used to jumpstart Jake’s heart.

“It was like a gasp, and we looked up, and the firefighters and EMT’s were there. They stepped in at that point,” Bocchino said.

Jake was then taken to Huntsville Hospital’s Heart Center where Doctors performed a series of tests.

“It showed a type of abnormality that people have, who have an inherited problem, that can lead to sudden death,” said Dr. Jay Dinerman, cardiologist.

It’s an abnormality known in the medical world as Long QT syndrome, and it’s an inherited defect that will change part of Jake’s life forever.

From here on out, he’ll have to wear his own defibrillator.

With the exception of contact sports, Jake can now live a pretty normal life.

“He’s a great kid, he’s very up-beat, optimistic. I think he took this the way you would really want to see people take it. He realized it was something that happened to him, something he was born with, nothing he could do much about. He’s just moving on.”

Moving on, but with a new outlook on life.

“Are you thankful for your life,” asked WAFF 48 News.

“Yeah I am, it just opened up more opportunities since I’ve had this heart attack. I feel blessed,” Jake said.

“I’ve already told them, but I’d like to say thank you again, I love all of you, you’re the reason why I’m here,” he added about those who helped him.

Jake has now graduated. He wants to go to Embry Riddle to become a pilot.

On Tuesday, Officer Jay Moriarty was at Highland Middle School when staff reported that a 61-year-old teacher had just collapsed on the soccer field.

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Officer Moriarty and another staff member grabbed the school’s defibrillator and ran out to the field.

School staff applied CPR and Officer Moriarty and staff deployed the defibrillator until Bellevue Fire Department medics arrived and took over.

The teacher was recovering at Overlake Hospital on Wednesday.

“I think it was awesome (helping save a life),” said Officer Moriarty. “And it was a good team effort.”

On May 3, 62-year-old Bucks County school coach John Gleeson was throwing batting practice in the left-field batting cage.

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Standing about 45 feet from the batter, shielded by an L-shaped screen commonly used by teams, Gleeson was pitching to Jake Skolnick – “our hardest hitter,” co-coach Vince Campellone said.

John Gleeson the Survivor

Campellone then heard the clang of a line drive hitting a bar of the screen.

Turning toward the cage, Campellone saw Gleeson facedown on the ground, his body twitching.

Campellone ran over and yelled for players to get the trainer.
Campellone rolled Gleeson onto his back, opened his mouth, and made sure he wouldn’t swallow his tongue.

Tyler Campellone, Vince’s son and a sophomore outfielder on the team who recently took a CPR course, started resuscitation.

Trainer Juana Bivins ran over from the gym behind center field, and used the defibrillator on Gleeson. A student trainer called Gleeson’s wife, Connie, who works at the school’s Children’s Center, and she arrived just in time to see a shock from the defibrillator jump-start his heart.

“It was very fortuitous the way that things fell,” John Gleeson said. “I could have been [at home] mowing the grass all by myself and had my blocked arteries kicked in, and I would have been in pretty bad shape because there would have been no one around. As it was, getting hit in the head with a line drive was almost a blessing in disguise, because it kicked off this whole series of things.”

Gleeson was rushed to the nearby St. Mary Medical Center. Five of his arteries were blocked.

Gleeson wants to return to coaching this fall for his son’s last football season, saying he has dreamed about it for a long time. If his heart exams go well, he could be ready for the mid-August start of practices. But if doctors say he needs a defibrillator implanted, he likely will miss the opening of the preseason.

As for Skolnick, the player who hit the fateful line drive, Gleeson said the senior went through the instinctual “Oh, my God, what have I done?” phase.

“But as I’ve told him and everybody has told him since,” Gleeson added, “it was a blessing in disguise, that in some ways you set off a series of events that probably will prolong my life for quite a while.”

It happened March 23rd, during the first class of the day.

Gym teacher Ken Haines said, “The class was doing a mile timed run. He was up toward the front and he was running strong, completed one lap, he was running around and right in this area right here, I saw him collapse down on all fours, seconds later he was just totally unresponsive.”

He was talking about seventh grader Travis Arnold. He radioed nursing assistant Tressa Palmer immediately, and sent students to get help.

“Two girls from the middle school came running and said that they needed me on the track, that a student was down,” said Palmer.

Two other staff members got the school’s defibrillator, or A.E.D. as she ran to the track. “I went over to Mr. Haines, he told me to try and see if I could find a pulse. I could not, Travis was still unconscious,” said Palmer.

Haines said, “She got the AED got right out here, I continued CPR while she hooked him up to the AED and shocked him and she started chest compressions and I was doing the breaths.”

His father, David Arnold remembers the call from the school secretary. “‘The word defibrillator was used’, and I said you only use a defibrillator on someone’s whose heart stopped. And she said Mr. Arnold you need to get to the hospital right now.”

What happened to the him was later called a sudden death episode. His parents say if the stars we not aligned that day, it all would be different. It seems everyone was in the right place at the right time.

A month later, Travis was back to school, and now, he’s just about back to doing all the things he used to do. “Yeah, 99 percent,” said Travis. He’s a man of few words, and thanks his favorite teacher. Dad is thankful he’s here to do it. “Like that day, I was just thankful I got to hug my son again.”

As the staff members and EMTs were honored, the gym teacher that saved his life said, “Travis, thanks for pulling through buddy, I appreciate that, and so does everyone else here”

Ironically, that gym teacher Ken Haines, collapsed in high school during a soccer game, was taken to the same hospital, and saved by a defibrillator.

Francis Howell Middle School’s seventh-grader Austin Redd, 13, collapsed to the floor at the start of class and went into cardiac arrest about 12:45 p.m., officials said.

St. Charles County Deputy Ron Neupert, 50, the school’s resource officer, raced to the gym and found Austin unconscious, not breathing and without a pulse. Neupert started CPR and radioed for an ambulance.

The school’s nurse, Lynne Finnerty, shocked Austin’s heart once with the school’s automatic external defibrillator.

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Shortly after, Austin regained consciousness.

“It seemed like forever, but within a few seconds, he began to breathe on his own and you could see he was coming around,” Neupert said.

Austin is expected to recover.

Marty Limpert, a spokesman for the St. Charles County Ambulance District, said the incident illustrates the need for AEDs in schools and staff trained in life-saving procedures.

“There’s no doubt that they saved his life,” Limpert said.

“It’s awesome,” Neupert said of Austin’s recovery. “These kids are my kids, and I care about every single one of them.”

Francis Howell Middle School Principal Amy Johnston said that Thursday was the first time the school has used its AED since it was installed about eight years ago.

And “hopefully the last,” she said.

March 11 started like every other day at Timber Creek High School, with students and staff standing and reciting the Pledge of Allegiance.

Savannah Vaden the Survivor

“I was in chemistry class, and we stood up to say the pledge.” the Timber Creek High School Sophomore Savannah Vaden recalled.

“She hit the ground, I heard a gasp,” Vaden’s Chemistry teacher, Shelley Hawkins remembered, “so I ran over there saw she was seizing.”

Another student helped Hawkins roll Savannah onto her side, then Hawkins called for the nurse and ran next door to get Mike King, science teacher and girls’ soccer coach.

“I had seen people having seizures before, so I wasn’t too worried about her. I just wanted to keep her safe until help arrived,” King said.

Hawkins took the other students into the next room.

Just after school nurse Thoy Fongsamouth came in, Savannah’s condition worsened.

“All of a sudden the seizures stopped, and she stopped breathing,” King said.

Fongsamouth issued a “code red” via her walkie-talkie and told office staff to call 911.

The code red triggered a team of people into action. King ran for the nearest automatic external defibrillator, or AED, other team members grabbed other AED devices around the school.

Principal Todd Tunnell and Assistant Principal James Johnson arrived as part of the code red team. Tunnell and Johnson stayed in the room while other members waited for emergency personnel or monitored hallways.

Fongsamouth and King hooked Savannah up to the AED and began performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

“It was a very sobering feeling hearing the computerized voice on the AED say, ‘Shocking in 3, 2, 1,’” Johnson said.

King said, “It was the most terrifying thing I’ve ever been a part of.”

“I wanted her to be ok,” Hawkins said, “and I kept just praying ‘let her be ok, let her be ok.’”

Johnson said both King and Fongsamouth kept calm during the crisis.

“To see somebody go into cardiac arrest, and then come back,” Johnson said, “it’s something that sticks with you for life.”

Erin Vaden, Savannah’s mom, arrived at the school just as a fire truck pulled up. A staff member met her at the door and took her to Savannah. She was just in time to see her daughter shocked by the AED.

“No parent should ever have to see that. I almost wish I hadn’t gotten there that quick,” Erin Vaden said. “You want to be there for your child, but you can’t handle seeing it.”

She walked back into the hall because she was so upset. A moment later, she heard that Savannah had a pulse and was breathing on her own and went back into the room.

Paramedics arrived and made sure Savannah’s condition was stable before loading her into the ambulance and taking her to Cook Children’s Medical Center in Fort Worth.

Savannah stayed in the hospital for five days. Doctors were able to determine what happened, but not why.

Although she doesn’t remember collapsing, she said she’s thankful she was at school when she did. “If it wouldn’t have happened here, I wouldn’t be here today.” she said.

She now has a permanent defibrillator in her chest that will jolt her heart, if it ever stops again.

Fifteen minutes before dismissal at Bismarck-Henning Junior High School quickly became the longest minutes of Josie Siddens’ life.

Siddens, the nurse for the school district, was returning to her office March 25 when a student came running up, telling her 12-year-old Ashton Norwell was screaming in the gymnasium.

Norwell was being led to Siddens’ office because he felt sick when he began to cry out in pain. But by the time Siddens — who was only seconds from the gymnasium — arrived, the boy was unresponsive and not breathing.

From there, Siddens went into action, moving the boy to the gym floor with the help of a gym teacher while Principal Rusty Campbell called 911. Another gym teacher stepped into the hallway to retrieve an automated external defibrillator hanging on the wall.

“I was looking at (the scene) saying ‘This is not happening here,’” said Siddens, a part-time emergency room nurse at Provena United Samaritans Medical Center. “From there it was just gut reaction.”

Siddens said she used the defibrillator immediately and then began CPR. She repeated the process, but was getting no response from Ashton, who had turned blue.

“I was scared the entire time, but from the second shock on I was saying ‘C’mon, buddy. C’mon, Ashton,’” Siddens recounted.

Suddenly, following the third shock from the defibrillator, Ashton drew a quick gasp of air.

Oxygen provided by Bismarck Community Ambulance helped bring him around and by the time Medix Ambulance personnel arrived, the lifeless boy was cracking jokes at his school nurse.

“There’s never been a better sound in my life than hearing him talk to me,” she said. “It was just fantastic.”

It may have only been a few minutes, but the scene was emotionally draining for Siddens.

“I’m fine during the emergency, I can handle myself well during the emergency,” she said. “But immediately after the emergency, not so well. Lots of people held me up after that.”

The players panicked as they surrounded an unconscious Jonathan Moore on the football field outside Pearland’s Glenda Dawson High School on March 3.

Jonathan Moore the Survivor

A minute before, the 16-year-old had been running with his teammates prepping for football practice. But Jonathan, a husky fullback and defensive tackle, suddenly collapsed.

His heart had stopped beating. He had no pulse.

Team trainers Matt Thomas and Chris Shaddock hurried to Jonathan’s side and began CPR.

Thomas grabbed the school’s automatic external defibrillator and used it on Moore to restart his heart.

It started beating again and paramedics rushed the teen to Children’s Memorial Hermann Hospital in Houston.

“I was sure he was dead,” Shaddock said.

Jonathan barely remembers anything from the day he collapsed. Someone told him he was doing a good job, but a few days later he found himself lying in a hospital bed, scared and confused.

Jonathan said, “Collapsed, passed out, actually died and Shadack and other trainers brought me back.”

“l’m very grateful for Pearland ISD, the trainers and all the doctors here,” said Jonathan’s mother Vanessa Williams.

Thomas and Shaddock said they weren’t really heroes. They were just doing what they were trained to.

“It was a team effort,” Shaddock said.

Cardiologists at Children’s Memorial Hermann implanted an internal defibrillator to regulate Jonathan’s heartbeat.

Student trainer Daniel Vermunt, men’s rugby coach Les Gilson and Mayla Parrent, associate director of Campus Security took action on November 13 when an 18-year-old varsity rower from Niagara Falls collapsed at the rowing center at the University.

Vermunt and Gilson were waiting for a bus when they heard someone shout, “Someone is down!”

Vermunt, who holds the Lifesaving Society’s Standard First Aid and Automatic Electronic Defibrillator certifications, found that the rower was not breathing.

Vermunt called to a bystander to get the defibrillator. Gilson arrived and with Vermunt, began two-person CPR and used the defibrillator.

Parrent, also a Society Standard First Aid certificate holder helped with compressions.

The three performed CPR for 10 to 15 minutes before the young man began breathing and EMS arrived.

Vermunt and Gilson only happened to be nearby because a bus was late in picking up the rugby team and taking them to an Ontario University Athletics bronze medal game, said Gilson.

“It was a whole bunch of little things that happened to fall into place,” he said.

Kyle DuBois’ heart stopped after receiving the shock in his electrical trades class at Dover High School on March 11 and paramedics were on the scene within a minute after receiving the call and were able to use an automated external defibrillator to get DuBois’ heart going.

Rob Dubois, Kyle’s father, said that he has no doubt that South End Fire Station’s rescuers’ quick response time and actions played a vital role in helping Kyle quickly recover from nearly critical injuries.

“When we left Dover, we were expecting a much different outcome,” he said, noting Kyle’s critical condition when he was transferred by helicopter from Wentworth-Douglass Hospital to Massachusetts General Hospital in Boston.

Rob DuBois said he expects his son to return to school on April 5. He also expects Kyle to make a full recovery but noted that doctors still want him to take it easy for a little while because they still have some concerns about blood flow.

“I wish I could shake the hands of every person who supported and prayed for Kyle and my family… but I think it would be impossible,” he said. “I just can’t find the words to thank people… there’s been a lot of kind hearts.”