First Aid Corps

Three security guards have been hailed as heroes after saving the life of a pensioner who lay dying in the town centre.

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The trio from Middleton Shopping Centre raced to the aid of 75-year-old Vera Roach who had collapsed close to Burton Street after suffering a cardiac arrest.

As well as administering CPR, the quick-thinking threesome of Leigh Garratt, John Hayes and Paul Robinson used a defibrillator kept in the shopping centre while an ambulance raced to the scene.

John Heyes, Paul Robinson & Leigh Garatt the Saviours

Mrs Roach’s daughter Jacqueline, said the men’s actions had saved her mum’s live.

“The doctors told me that if it wasn’t for the actions of the guards my mum wouldn’t have made it. I cannot thank them enough.”

Mrs Roach is expected to arrive home today (Thursday) after spending a fortnight being treated at North Manchester General Hospital.

She collapsed on June 30 close to the lights at the end of Burton Street after leaving her home to head into Middleton town centre for some shopping.

But as she prepared to cross Factory Street she suffered a heart attack and fell to the ground.

A few minutes later, security manager Leigh Garratt from Reliance, who manage Middleton Shopping Centre’s, spotted Mrs Roach on the ground.

“I was just heading out on my lunch when I spotted a crowd gathered around this lady,” he said. “I went over and started performing CPR and asked my colleagues to bring over the defibrillation machine from the shopping centre.”

Leigh’s colleagues, John and Paul, arrived with the machine as the trio continued to attempt to restart Mrs Roach’s heart while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

Once paramedics arrived, they continued to assistant the medical crews as they prepared to transfer her to hospital.

“There is a golden few minutes when someone’s heart stops,” Leigh added. “I have since found out that Mrs Roach had been there for over 10 minutes before we arrived, but we are trained to do this and were glad to help out.”

As well as working as security guards in Middleton Shopping Centre, Leigh and his colleagues are all trained in basic life support as well as how to use a defibrillation machine.

David McNally, community resuscitation manager for NW ambulance, who trained the guards, said: “If these machines are used within four minutes of someone collapsing the chances of people surviving goes up quite dramatically and this is what happened here.

“It is testament to their skill and the programme we do that someone’s life has been saved.”

Since the incident, Mrs Roach has been fitted with a pacemaker and has made a speedy recovery.

Her daughter Jacqueline said she was expected to return to her home in Parkfield today (Thursday).

“I cannot thank the guards enough for what they have done,” she said. “Together with the ambulance and doctors they have saved my mum’s live.”

Ronald Shinn, age 67, collapsed while walking across a parking lot at the Providence Tigard Business Center.

Ronald Shinn (center) the Survivor

Fortunate for Shinn, Providence Security Guard John Pilon and Providence eHealth Regional Medical Director Ray Costantini were nearby and immediately came to his aid.

The pair began CPR and utilized an on-site automatic external defibrillator (AED) to shock Shinn’s dying heart.

Emergency crews from Metro West Ambulance and Tualatin Valley Fire & Rescue arrived on scene approximately three minutes later.

A single shock by paramedics converted Shinn’s heart back to a normal rhythm and he was immediately loaded into the ambulance. While en route to the hospital, paramedics continued advanced life support measures.

Remarkably, Shinn was semi-conscious and attempting to speak to paramedics when he arrived at the hospital. He was able to leave the hospital three days later.

51-year-old Richard Hannah was part of a crew installing a new fire alarm system at The Peaks Resort when he hit the ground as the result of a massive heart attack.

“The last thing I remember is working,” Hannah said in an interview with the Planet on Thursday. “The next thing I remember is waking up in the hospital five days later.”

Hannah was saved by one of the 32 public automatic external defibrillators placed throughout the towns of Telluride, Mountain Village, Placerville and even at Society Turn in Lawson Hill.

It was Peaks Director of Security Tom Chaddic, a trained first responder, who saved Hannah’s life.

Hannah was then taken to the Telluride Medical Center, where he was stabilized for a flight to St. Mary’s hospital in Grand Junction.

A 38-YEAR-OLD man whose heart stopped is alive and in hospital, thanks to a built-in defibrillator in the Madrid shopping centre he was visiting.

A security guard in La Vaguada mall in the city’s Pilar district says he was automatically alerted when the man attempted to use the machine.

He then rushed to his aid and applied the defibrillator, which sends electric shocks through the heart to re-start it.

Public buildings all over Spain began to install defibrillators at the end of 2007 after the sudden death of Sevilla footballer Antonio Puerta from a cardiac arrest.

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

83 year old Jack Folkins of Annapolis was with his wife, Margaret, in front of the Starbucks near the JCPenney store just before 4:30 p.m. when he had the attack and collapsed on a sofa, according to mall security and county Fire Department officials.

The mall’s security team, of Professional Security Consultants, was alerted to the medical emergency and officers stationed throughout the mall quickly sprang into action, said Sgt. David McMullen, a supervisor of the mall security crew.

Officers Hasan Nazzel and Ian Preuss ran to the customer-service counter in front of Lord & Taylor and grabbed a first-aid kit and one of three defibrillators at the mall, McMullen said.

They ran to Starbucks, where they joined McMullen and Officers Jamie Schmidt and James Millsap as they assisted Folkins, who was not breathing and did not have a pulse.

Courtney McCluskey, a physician who works for Franklin Square Hospital, was walking through the mall when she heard screams for help and ran to help. She and Folkins’ wife were already doing CPR when the security officers arrived, McMullen said. McCluskey was performing chest compressions on Folkins and his wife was breathing into his mouth.

Meanwhile, a large crowd was forming around Folkins.

As the officers cleared onlookers, McMullen placed the defibrillator on Folkins’ chest.

“I analyzed his body – then the (defibrillator) advised me to give him a shock,” he said. “At that point he wasn’t breathing and he didn’t have a pulse, either. I reanalyzed him, and another shock was not advised. I told the doctor to continue compressions and I gave him two full breaths.”

Soon after, Folkins regained consciousness and began breathing normally, McMullen said.

Paramedics arrived about a minute later to take over Folkins’ treatment.

“It was quite a miracle that he survived,” Folkins said, adding that her husband is at Washington Hospital Center in Washington, D.C., awaiting heart surgery. “Everything was just beautifully done, and I feel like I have two angels on my shoulders.”

McMullen said the rescue was “an amazing experience.”

“This is my first life-saving experience since I’ve been here for four years,” he said.

“I’m very grateful for all of the people who helped us,” Margaret Folkins said Saturday. “I did the best I could under the circumstances, but they were absolutely wonderful – both the two ladies who came in as strangers and attended to us, and then also the security force at the mall.”

“They all used the training that they’ve received and acted in a very quick and smart manner,” he said. “I couldn’t be any more proud of them if they were my own sons.”

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

The couple usually goes to Highland Mall most morning at 10 a.m., as the mall is opening, 68-year-old Dixie Mix said. On Nov. 3, she and her husband were walking inside the mall when she went ahead to do a lap by herself. Paul Mix stayed behind to take his medicine. When she approached the Aeropostale store, where she’d left him, she’d noticed that he wasn’t there.

A store employee saw Paul fall, Dixie Mix said. “By the time I got back to him, his heart and lungs were still working, but he just said, ‘I need down,’ and collapsed,” she said.

Mall security Captain Criselda Ozuna and security officer Jamael Jackson rushed to the couple’s side. Ozuna performed CPR and Jackson helped with the defibrillator, Dixie Mix said. By the time paramedics arrived, officials said, mall employees had done much of the work of reviving Mix.

“How do you thank somebody for returning what could have been lost when it is everything?” Dixie Mix said. She referred to Ozuna and Jackson as “two angels.”

“It was wonderful to have so many people who cared so much. You always hear about the bad an I was tickled to death this is the good,” said Dixie Mix, wife.

“You have to ask yourself, ‘What is my next heartbeat worth?’,” Rodriguez said. “This is a perfect example of a business who decided that well in advance.”

Everyone involved with saving Mix’s life reunited Wednesday along with a ceremony to honor the four Highland Mall employees for their life saving efforts. Those honored include security officers Jamael Jackson and Criselda Ozuna, along with mall housekeeping employees Carlos Ignacio and Fidel Salazar.

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

A 20-year-old electrician whose heart stopped beating after he received an electric shock at a business in Melbourne’s east today was revived by a security guard using a defibrillator.

The guard at the business at Ringwood grabbed the public access defibrillator and used it to deliver a small electrical charge that restarted the man’s heart.

“The quick thinking by the staff member was very impressive and that’s why the ambulance service encourages large organisations and buildings to have access to these defibrillators on site,” Mr Rankin said.

Defibrillators would greatly improve the chances of someone surviving accidents such as electric shocks, he said.