First Aid Corps

Drew Brantley, 17, a school soccer and baseball star, was playing basketball with classmates last week when he collapsed and appeared to have a seizure.

Drew Brantley the Survivor

But nurse Brenda Strunk said she quickly realized it was much more severe.

“When we got to him, we were trying to find pulse on him. We couldn’t find a pulse,” she said.

Strunk grabbed an Automated External Defibrillator located outside the school’s gym and used it to bring the boy back from full cardiac arrest.

Brantley spent five days in Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis, where doctors said he had a heart condition that had gone undetected.

Now he is back home and thanking the people, and the machine, that helped save his life.

“I couldn’t tell you where one of (the AEDs) is in the school, although I guess I will now,” he said. “I’m just so happy that everybody knew how to use it, and everybody got there on time.”

“Only because of that device and the people at school is our son still alive” said Ron Brantley. “Make sure you get them. Even if you don’t have to use them, it’s a security blanket.”

About 8:15 a.m. on 4th February, moments after talking with Homestead High School senior Abishek Chintapalli, biology teacher Bekki Vail heard him fall to the floor.

Abishek Chintapalli the Survivor

She ran to see what had happened and found him unconscious, but making irregular gasps for air, known as agonal breathing.

Two students rushed to the clinic and alerted school nurse Maria Lund, who ran to the room and started giving Chintapalli chest compressions in front of a crowd of students.

Time seemed to slip away as Lund kept pushing, unable to get Chintapalli to begin breathing.

“I could see his color was getting bad,” Lund said.

Nurse Beth Quigley was the second responder to arrive. She worked with Lund, giving Chintapalli mouth-to-mouth to no avail.

Vail called 911, and Lund radioed for an automated external defibrillator.

A custodian heard the call, grabbed the device near the clinic and ran upstairs to give it to Lund.

By that time, Assistant Principal Steve Lake had arrived on the scene. He never had felt so helpless, he said, as he watched Lund put the defibrillator on Chintapalli’s chest.

Chintapalli’s heart wasn’t beating, and the defibrillator gave directions to shock. Lund did so, twice, establishing a heartbeat.

More staff members arrived to help carry Chintapalli down the stairs; others contacted his mother.

By the time an ambulance pulled away, at least 20 Southwest Allen County Schools employees had played some role in the emergency response.

“You were there when Chintapalli needed him, and you did everything in a very timely manner,” Chintapalli’s mother, Lakshmi said. “Abi is alive because of you.”

Chintapalli said he was touched by the support he received in the hospital and was happy to be back in school.

“I lost 8 to 10 pounds when I was in the hospital,” he said. “But I think I gained it all back yesterday. We had lots of parties, lots of food.”

On Jan. 16, David Feinstein was walking out of Southwest Rec Center on the UF campus in Gainesville when he heard cries for help.

Cook, a building construction professor who has done consulting work for Pulte Homes in Volusia County, had suffered a heart attack.

He had been playing racquetball with one of his students, 24-year-old Brando Fetzek, and a couple other friends when he told them he felt winded, needed to take a break, and would catch them on the next game.

“We finished the game in about five minutes, and as I walked out I saw him laying there,” said Fetzek, a Bradenton resident. “I called out for somebody to call an ambulance and that’s when David and his buddy came running over. David started to perform CPR.”

Several other students joined in, calling 911, alerting Southwest Rec staff to the emergency and helping with the CPR.

They set up a nearby AED — automated external defibrillator — which is used to shock a non-beating heart into starting again.

“We put it on him and we shocked him and we got a pulse, but it wasn’t a very strong one,” Feinstein said. “He took a big gasp of air, but then he wasn’t breathing on his own, so we kept doing CPR.”

Paramedics transported Cook to the hospital where he stayed for five days. Since then, he has made a full recovery and has even returned to the classroom.

But it wouldn’t have happened without prompt action by the students. Reached by e-mail, Cook expressed appreciation for the help he received.

“I owe my life to Brando and David and three other students (Joey Murvis, Karina Reyner and Josh Rubin) who administered CPR and AED. I will be forever grateful to them,” Cook wrote.

Meanwhile, Feinstein’s parents, Larry and Candace of Ormond Beach, are understandably proud because for all his good grades and ambition, his latest accomplishment put everything in a new perspective.

“You want your kids to go out and do good. You couldn’t ask for anything better,” his mother said.

Michael Crane, 26, was at Novato High School gym in November and getting ready to play a playoff adult league basketball game.

Michael Crane the Saviour

Forrest Manning’s team had just lost and he had just sat down in a chair.

About 20 seconds into Crane’s game, Manning fell out of the chair and his teammates called out for help.

Crane is a graduate student at Arizona State University and is finishing his thesis for a degree in fire department administration.

He finished an 18-month internship with the Napa Fire Department in early 2008 and is trained as an emergency medical technician.

Crane gave mouth-to-mouth resuscitation and chest compressions until Novato paramedics arrived.

Manning received shocks from a defibrillator and was taken to a hospital.

He is recovering from having two stents installed in previously blocked arteries.

With some help, Manning tracked down Crane, who recently moved to San Francisco, to thank him. “It’s strange because how can you really thank somebody completely who saved your life?” Manning said. “I’m sure he knows how much it meant.”

Crane said he got goosebumps when Manning called. “I was taken aback by it all,” he said. “I think everybody who was there that night has seen the impact of knowing CPR. Hopefully people will take the steps to learn it so they have the ability to save a life.”

Malinowski and friend Kayla Stonehouse had come back from a water break during a kick boxing class about 9:20 p.m. Wednesday at the University of Wisconsin-La Crosse’s Recreational Eagle Center to find abdominal exercises already had begun on the mat.

“Good thing we came back late,” Malinowski whispered jokingly to Stonehouse.

When the next exercise began, everyone flipped on their backs - except Malinowski.

Stonehouse again thought she was joking.

Then she noticed Malinowski’s face, eyes rolled back. She began to wheeze and gasp.

Stonehouse jumped up, yelling for help.

Sophomore Christiane Berdan was certified in CPR from her lifeguard days and as a UW-L athletic training student. She thought at first Malinowski had fainted but when she got closer realized it was much worse. The 20-year-old had no pulse and wasn’t breathing.

“You kick into autopilot and do what needs to be done at the moment and don’t think about it,” said Berdan.

Berdan started chest compressions, and Stonehouse began breathing for her friend.

Andrea Harrill, UW-L student and building manager at the center, was sitting at the back counter when a frantic person came from the fitness room. Harrill directed students and fellow staff to grab an on-site defibrillator and call 911.

Harrill administered shocks to Malinowski with the defibrillator until the La Crosse Fire Department and Tri-State Ambulance arrived.

Firefighter EMTs got Malinowski breathing on her own again, her father Mark Malinowski said.

His daughter is recovering at Franciscan Skemp Medical Center. Walking outside the hospital room, Mark Malinowski’s eyes teared up when he spoke of the many people who came through for his family and daughter - from UW-L staff to firefighters, first responders and hospital workers.

But she wouldn’t be alive had the students not known what to do, he said.

“They reacted. They weren’t afraid to do something,” he said. “These people are heroes in my book.”

“Talking to people and realizing more and more how bad it was when I was going to the hospital, realizing it really is a second chance at life,” Clare said.

“People I don’t even know and don’t remember and had no idea would do such things for me are showing all sorts of support. I can’t show thanks enough,” Clare said.

Faith Sendelweck would just like to get back to a normal routine.

She goes back to Jasper Middle School on Monday; however, this once high-energy soccer player is forced to take it a little easier from now on.

Sendelweck says she does not remember much of what happened one Sunday earlier this month.

“All I remember is diving for a ball and throwing it back,” Sendelweck said. “That’s pretty much it.”

She was playing soccer in the gym of Jasper High School.

Sendelweck’s dad was with her and he remembers seeing her collapse into a curtain hanging from the gym ceiling.

Dr. Dean Beckman just happened to be playing basketball with his son there, too, and immediately ran to help.

“(She was) becoming a little bit lethargic, sat down, became unconscious and then lost her pulse,” Dr. Beckman said. “We started CPR.”

Turns out, Sendelweck had a congenital heart condition that no one knew about.

“The rhythm is messed up,” Sendelweck said. “You have a short bump and then a big bump and then another short bump. My short bump drags on too long before my next heart beat and messes it up.”

Sendelweck might not be here had it not been for a defibrillator in the gym.

“You could tell she was starting to respond because her color came back, her lips turned pink and she was moaning,” Dr. Beckman said.

Sendelweck now has her own defibrillator, an IED, implanted in her chest.

Sendelweck is going to be a spokesperson for pediatric IED’s at Kosair’s Children’s Hospital.

The 55-year-old male, who goes to the Brock University’s faculty of education campus in Hamilton, was at the Glenridge Avenue campus playing an intramural basketball game when he collapsed about 8:15 p.m.

People nearby rushed to the man’s aid and used one of the school’s automated external defibrillators to deliver an electric shock to restart the victim’s heart.

The man’s son and his girlfriend helped administer CPR until paramedics arrived.

In a biology classroom last month, Manzano High School 14-year old freshman Nicholas Roldan almost lost his life.

“I don’t remember anything happening, at all. They said I said I feel weird, then I was out,” said Roldan.

“Two kids ran in and said there’s an emergency next door, we need you,” said Marianne Evans, teacher.

According to Evans, Roldan did not have a pulse an was not breathing. She said she performed CPR for about 15 minutes and there was still nothing.

“He would take a little breath and I’d think we had him, and I kept telling him breathe! Breathe! He just never took another breath after that,” said Evans.

At that time, another teacher rushed in with a defibrillator and shocked him.

“It’s a horrible thing to see. It’s nothing like on TV,” said Evans.

The paramedics finally showed up and was able to bring Roldan back.

“Right before they were going to leave the room, I heard them say, ‘He’s got a pulse,’” she said. “And all I said was, you know, ‘thank God.’”

“I remember just being in the hospital. I’m really grateful that everybody was there to help and that I’m fine now,” said Roldan.

Evans said that the defibrillation was a horrible thing to see but according to paramedics, without it the student would have died.

Witnesses on Wednesday night said a fan who was in the school gym to watch Lenape and Kingsway compete in the holiday tournament collapsed about two minutes after the start of the game.

The man was helped onto the court surface where the game was stopped and rescue professionals in the stands rushed to his side.

Lenape school resource officer Pat Robey of the Medford Police Department and fellow officer Andy Haggerty, who performs the same duties at Shawnee, were among the first to reach the stricken fan.

Lenape athletic trainer Bill Von Leer ran across the court carrying the portable defibrillator that all Lenape District schools have on-site.

From the stands came Dr. Dave Fischman, who has a son on the Indians’ junior varsity team, and Luann Robertson, a registered nurse.

For close to 10 minutes, the five used all their abilities, including the defibrillator, oxygen and cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, to revive the unconscious fan.

Shortly before Medford Police, Medford Emergency Services and the Mobile Intensive Care Unit arrived, the silent gymnasium heard the words: “You’re all right. You’re going to be all right.”

The man regained consciousness and was taken to a nearby hospital for treatment. His identity and condition were unknown Wednesday night.

“It was amazing to be here to watch all these guys do their jobs,” Lenape principal Tony Cattani said. “We’ve had the defibrillators in the district for about five years now. We’ve had people and classes when they graduate donate them to the schools. This is the first time we’ve had to use one here and to my knowledge, none of the other district schools has had to use one. All our administrators are trained with it. Some of our teachers are trained and all of our coaches are trained for it.”

Lenape’s athletic trainer also was pleased with the response.

“It was very nice the way everybody worked together,” Von Leer said. “The two officers, Pat and Andy, and Dr. Fischman and Mrs. Robertson all seemed to know their jobs perfectly. It just worked out really well.”

Just after noon, a 7-year-old boy was celebrating at a holiday party with his classmates at the Josiah Quincy Elementary School in Boston, said Matthew Wilder, spokesman for the Boston public schools.

Suddenly, he became unresponsive and went into cardiac arrest, Wilder said. It is unclear what triggered the problem.

School nurses immediately rushed to the classroom where the party was taking place and began performing CPR on the boy, Wilder said.

They also used a defibrillator.

Three minutes later, emergency medical technicians arrived and found the boy was not breathing and had no pulse. Paramedics arrived on the scene a few minutes later.

Emergency workers managed to revive the child, but he was not breathing on his own when they transported him across the street to Tufts Medical Center, according to emergency officials.

“The school nurse really should be praised,” said Jennifer Mehigan, spokeswoman for Boston Emergency Medical Services. “Those quick actions are really what save someone’s life.”

He is still listed as in critical condition.