First Aid Corps

Six women entered the pool for the women’s 100 yard breaststroke at the Florida Senior Games.

Sylvia Eisele the Survivor

Their ages ranged from 75 to 86.

As two other swimmers who were not competing in the race watched from behind the starting block, their eyes locked on one of the competitors who gracefully swam from wall to wall.

“Look at lane 5,” one of them said. “Such a smooth stroke.”

Indeed, lane 5 was full of grace as Sylvia Eisele — who nearly died during a race two years ago — embarked on a memorable day.

In addition to her aquatic elegance, Eisele did make a really big splash on Saturday at Gandy Pool in Lakeland.

Following a two-year absence from competitive swimming, the 82-year-old from the Cypress Lake section of Fort Myers returned to the water in record-setting fashion.

As her husband, Nicholas, watched from the sidelines, Eisele competed in three races and set Florida Senior Games age group records in every one.

“It’s been a great day for her,” Nicholas proudly stated.

“I enjoy the water. I love the water,” Eisele said. “I should have been a fish, not a human being.”

For the past two years, Eisele was a fish out of water.

Two years ago, swimming and everything else in her life came to a sudden halt. Near the end of a long day at a Canadian national competition in Toronto — close to the couple’s home in Mississauga — Eisele suffered a heart incident during a race.

“Two arm lengths from the wall, I felt a pain in my head and I was gone,” she recalled. “I was sinking.”

“Her heart stopped,” said Nicholas.

After being pulled out of the water, lifeguards quickly went to work. One provided mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while the other grabbed a defibrillator.

“I was dead on the deck,” Eisele said. “They had to get a defibrillator to get my heart going.”

The prompt response saved Eisele’s life.

“We were so lucky that there was such good medical help available,” Nicholas said.

Her recuperation in a hospital lasted nine days.

Her absence from competitive swimming lasted two years.

“It’s been rough on her because she’s been a competitor all her life,” Nicholas said.

Before she arrived in North America more than a half-century ago, Eisele was an elite swimmer in her native Austria.

The competitive juices that flowed back then — be it in swimming, tennis, cycling or downhill skiing — are still present today in the pool.

“I like competition. I’m a very competitive person,” she said.

Eisele has been a fixture in the local swim scene since she and her husband moved to Fort Myers 25 years ago. She is a longtime member of the Swim Florida club program run by Mac Kennedy. Eisele still practices right next to the program’s young swimmers.

“Mac gives me a lane. He treats me very nicely,” she said.

Eisele, who has competed around the globe — from Australia to Brazil to Germany to New Zealand and has held world records in masters swimming — showed no signs of rust as she returned to the lanes for competition on Saturday.

Accompanied by a device that is implanted near her collarbone in order to make sure her heart beats the way it’s supposed to, Eisele set new age group records for the women’s 80-84 division in the 100 yard breastroke (2:02), 100 yard individual medley (2:02) and 50-yard breastroke (:53.50).

“She swims the 50 faster than I can walk it,” said Nicholas, 85.

On this day, the records didn’t carry quite as much significance for Eisele. Simply being back in the pool for competitive races was enough of a reward.

“I like to be active,” she said. “I like to do things to stay healthy, mentally and physically, that’s the key.”

Allan Robertson would almost certainly be dead today had he’d suffered his sudden cardiac arrest somewhere else.

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The 57-year-old St. Albert father of three collapsed at a pickup soccer game Nov. 14 in the Edmonton Soccer Centre South. His heart stopped, cutting off the blood’s supply of oxygen and nutrients to his brain. At a time when his risk of brain damage and death climbed by the second, there was an automated external defibrillator (AED) nearby and one of Robertson’s teammates was an off-duty emergency medical technician who knew how to use it.

“I remember warming up and joking with one of my buddies, ‘Gee, look at us. We’re the oldest two here,’ ” Robertson said Friday at a news conference on the field where it happened.

“The next thing I know, I wake up in the hospital.”

Matt Austin, 37, was in net at the other end of the indoor field when he saw Robertson lying face-down on the ground.

“Since I didn’t see the play, I guess I assumed initially it was a head injury,” said the Edmonton man, who has been an EMT for three years and works in Camrose.

Matt Austin the Saviour and Allan Robertson the Survivor

Austin quickly realized Robertson wasn’t breathing. He started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation (CPR) and told teammates to call 911 and get the defibrillator the soccer centre keeps near the front door.

“I attached it right away and gave him his first shock after it advised me to do that,” Austin said. “I didn’t feel any pulse or breathing or anything like that again, so I started compressions, did a couple rounds of that, and he took two breaths and his eyes opened for a second.”

After two more rounds of CPR, Robertson gasped for air and opened his eyes. “Within 30 seconds of that, he was actually trying to get off the turf here. He was trying to get up. I said, ‘No, Al, you’ve got to stay down. Stay where you’re at. The ambulance is on its way.’ ”

Approximately four minutes passed between the time Robertson collapsed and when Austin revived him and he tried to get up. The ambulance arrived a few minutes after that, Austin said.

“The brain doesn’t go very long without oxygen. Three to five minutes, they say, is the average, so without early intervention with either CPR or AED or, ideally, both, the possibility of recovery is a lot less.”

Austin said his training took over during the dramatic events. “CPR, I’ve done many times but I’ve never had positive results out of it. By the time an ambulance gets there, if CPR hasn’t been initiated, we’re outside that three- to five-minute window just about always. If CPR hadn’t been started by the so-called bystander, the results would have been a lot worse.”

Robertson was taken to the Grey Nuns Hospital where he had surgery to implant a defibrillator that keeps his heart pumping properly.

Doctors told him the cardiac arrest was caused by a heart abnormality called hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, which Robertson might have inherited. Robertson doesn’t know yet if he’ll be able to play soccer again, something he’s done twice a week for the past 20 years.

He had no indication of heart trouble before the cardiac arrest.

“I’m just so thankful to be here with everyone and I’m so thankful to Matt,” Robertson said. “Fortunately, Matt was here that day.”

Roberson is convinced he would have died had his cardiac arrest happened during another soccer game he plays every week.

“I play soccer with another group as well, on Friday night, and if this had happened at that venue, they don’t have a defibrillator there. I asked the guys after I visited there, ‘Does anybody know CPR?’ and of the guys that were there, not one knew CPR.”

Robertson’s wife, Karen, said her husband had “a real guardian angel with him that day.” The incident has helped the Robertsons focus on what’s really important in life, such as friends and family, she said.

Austin said he is grateful he could make such a difference to the lives of so many people who love Robertson, including Robertson’s wife and three adult kids.

“It’s a little overwhelming,” Austin said. “It’s an incredible feeling. It’s the most important thing I’ve ever done in my life.”

An Ottawa firefighter said he’s looking forward to having a beer with the opposing player whose life he helped save during a game of hockey Friday night.

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Ottawa paramedics said a 61-year-old man was playing hockey at the Kanata Recreation Complex when he collapsed around 10:30 p.m. Friday.

Off-duty firefighter Pat Aubry skated over, felt he had no pulse and immediately asked for someone to call 911 and get the public access defibrillator, according to Ottawa Fire Services.

“I was assessing him and as I was assessing him his eyes rolled back and he went purple, so I started CPR,” said firefighter Pat Aubry.

CPR and one shock from the defibrillator were delivered, and paramedics said the man’s pulse was back when they arrived.

“We set it up on him and the machine did what it was supposed to do,” Aubry said.

He was taken to hospital conscious and is in stable condition.

Aubry, who looked after the patient’s children while their mother was at the hospital, said he’s done CPR plenty of times on the job.

Still, he insists the accolades aren’t his alone.

“(People say) ‘Thanks a lot Pat, you’re the guy that saved him,’” he said. “I said no, it was a team effort, everybody helped.”

You wish you never have to use it, but if you do you’re glad it’s there.

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That was the case at the Nov. 11 when the quick work of emergency personnel and effective use of a public access defibrillator saved the life of an Orleans man at the Smiths Falls Memorial Community Centre.

Joe McGrath was there to watch his grandson Connor play a Central Canada Hockey League game for the hometown Bears against the visiting Cumberland Grads. Towards the end of the first period, the gentleman passed out after his heart stopped as a result of cardiac arrhythmia.

Almost immediately, volunteer firefighter Paul Bisonette left his spot at the rink and came to his aid. He administered CPR while awaiting the arrival of the defibrillator that was on site at the rink.

Equipment manager Tom Arnold knew exactly where it was located and left the players bench to retrieve the vital equipment and rush it to the scene.

By then, Bears’ trainer Dale McCabe, a Lanark County paramedic, was also on hand and ready to place the pads and administer the initial shock to get the heart beating again.

Within seconds after resuming CPR, the gentleman’s breathing returned and he was even able to utter some words to those around him.

Having returned to life, emergency personnel were able to transport Mr. McGrath across the road to the Smiths Falls hospital before he was transferred to the University of Ottawa Heart Institute in Ottawa.

Some might call it a miracle. That so many capable individuals would be on site and be ready to take action to save this person’s life is truly remarkable. There are no words, Mr. McGrath says, to describe the thanks he has for all of them.

He had a massive heart attack in the middle of a hockey game. But Stephen Spiros, 59, was revived thanks to an automated external defibrillator or AED and some teammates who knew how to use it.

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NewsChannel Five’s Ann Rubin was there as Spiros was reunited with the people who saved his life.

The incident happened Monday at the Kirkwood Ice Rink.

Goalie Stephen Spiros was playing well, Little did he know someone else would have the best “save” of the night.

Spiros says, “I was having a good game and the next thing I know, I don’t know anything.”

Spiros had suffered a massive heart attack. But as he lay motionless, others took action.

First Craig Merrifield from the opposing team, ran for the AED. His own father had died from a heart attack, so he knew every moment mattered.

He says, “I know it at every rink, I know exactly where it is. I know which rinks have them, which rinks don’t.”

The Kirkwood rink has an AED. And thankfully, Spiro’s teammate Don Guenther knew how to use it.

He had recently been trained on the device through his church.

Guenther says, “I held my finger there and somebody said push the darn button and I boom pushed the button.”

It took two shocks, but by the time paramedics arrived, Spiros’s heart was beating.

They say that AED made all the difference.

Guenther says, “The paramedics told us that if we wouldn’t have responded so quickly, that we wouldn’t still have a goalie on our team.”

Jaguar’s coach Brian Robinson says, “If Steve had been anywhere else, had he been at the store, the theater, the outcome would have been very different.”

He spent nearly a week recovering at Des Peres Hospital.

And one of his first acts upon his release Sunday, thanking the men who saved his life.

He’ll wear a portable defibrillator for now. But doctors say his prognosis is good.

So is his outlook.

He says, “God wasn’t finished with me yet. So this was the first day of the rest of my life.”

Doctors told Spiros no hockey for at least 90 days. In the meantime, he’ll be cheering his teammates on, and talking up the importance of knowing how to use that AED.