Eric Lemieux the Survivor

Eric Lemieux was working on a tractor with his son-in-law when he had a heart attack. In a matter of seconds, his step-daughter and son-in-law started performing CPR.

“I noticed his lips were turning blue, and his face was kind of turning blue. So I started doing chest compressions right away. And then I noticed the second I started doing that, I noticed the colour started coming back into his lips,” Stephanie Dionne told CTV Ottawa on Monday.

Dionne learned CPR because of a mandatory program through work. She never thought she’d actually have to use it.

“Without the training, we wouldn’t have known what to do. All we would’ve done is call 911. And even though they were very quick to respond, I don’t know if it would’ve been soon enough,” Dionne said.

But thanks to the quick actions of his son-in-law, and Somers Point Police, Major was saved after the officers used a defibrillator to restart his heart.

And Monday, Special Officer Chris Haskins, Special Officer Jeffrey Mazer, Officer Rick Dill, and Major’s son-in-law Dr. Michael O’Hara, were honored by the Life Support Training Center of Shore Memorial Hospital.

And Tom Major was in great spirits and even joking about the life-saving experience.

“There’s an old Chinese saying that if you save somebody’s life then you’re responsible for it. So I interpret that to mean if I was speeding or missed a stop sign he can’t arrest me,” jokes Major.

Daniel Beahan the Saviour

It was Sept. 9 around 9:40 p.m.

Daniel’s grandfather, Edward Robertson, 80, lost consciousness and went into respiratory arrest.

The teen’s father, Joseph Beahan, called 911, and Daniel quickly went to work performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

A dispatcher instructed the family to move Robertson from the bed onto a hard surface, like the floor, Joseph Beahan said.

Daniel doesn’t remember how long he performed CPR, but after a short while, his grandfather began labored breathing .

A few minutes later, state police arrived with an automated external defibrillator device.

Robertson was connected to the device, but it said no shock was advised because his heart was beating, Daniel said. His grandfather’s pacemaker was probably a factor in that, he said.

Robertson regained consciousness in the ambulance, en route to the hospital, he said.

Joseph Beahan, the buildings administrator for the Dutchess County Department of Public Works, said his son and his father-in-law have always been very close.

“You wonder how your kids will react in an emergency situation,” Beahan said. “He got in there and did exactly what he needed to do.

“His grandfather’s here because of him,” he said. “He thanks him every day.”

Daniel was certified in CPR by the American Heart Association through a course taught by the Heart Safe Club in Rhinebeck.

“We’re proud of him, that he put the skills to use,” Forbes said. “He acted quickly and didn’t just sit by.”

Tom Major the Survivor

Somebody made a joke and Nancy thought at first that her dad was rolling his eyes at the line. But then she saw that his eyes had rolled back in his head on their own.

As soon as Nancy shouted that Tom wasn’t breathing, Mike O’Hara told the others to call 911.

He got Major on the ground and started doing chest compressions.

Nancy reached the police, who sent an officer rushing to the house. All the others realize that seconds felt more like hours while Tom was on the ground, “turning purple,” as Mike saw it, but they say the first police car was there 2 to 3 minutes after they called.

The family credits Officer Rick Dill with using the defibrillator from his patrol car to restart Major’s heart.

“I was very angry when they told me I was dead,” Major says, smiling, “because I didn’t see any of that stuff … I didn’t see any bright lights” or religious visions or people from his past life or any of the things that survivors of near-death experiences famously report.

“I didn’t see anybody or anything,” he says.

He just has a hole in his memory, one he can joke about now, after a long month of getting better.

“When somebody is that purple, you can be pretty damn certain something isn’t working,” says Mike O’Hara, who admits to being “greatly surprised that (Major) is able to tell this story. I didn’t think it was going to have a good outcome at all. So many things could have gone wrong on so many levels, he was just extremely fortunate.”

And for that, Major and his family are grateful to lots of people and one machine, the defibrillator, available now to bring people back to life in many convenient locations.