First Aid Corps

15-year old ALISON has little recollection of the days preceding her heart attack. She said she woke up on July 20 feeling her “normal self.” What happened next she does not recall, but, her mother does.

Alison Roney the Survivor

Deborah Roney was in the computer room in her house at about 1:15 p.m. when she heard gagging sounds coming from the kitchen. She called out to her daughter, “Alison, is that you or the dog?”

When she received no response, Deborah Roney made her way into the kitchen. She found Alison on the floor, gasping for breath.

Deborah Roney called on her CPR training and began trying to save her daughter’s life with cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.

Deborah Roney’s 9-1-1 Fairfax County call came in at 1:25 p.m., and an ambulance left the Vienna fire station at 1:26 p.m. It, and a fire truck, pulled up at 1:29 p.m. At 1:30 p.m., EMTs were in the house. Three Vienna police cars responded, as well. When the rescue team arrived, Deborah Roney entrusted Alison’s life to them.

“The real story is that they [the Vienna EMTs] got here so quickly and did such a great job,” said Jack Roney.

Alison was intubated with fluid lines and blood draw lines within minutes. The Roneys later found out that Alison was shocked twice with a defibrillator, once at the house and again in the emergency vehicle.

With IV lines already in-place, Alison spent little time in the emergency room. The treatment Alison got at home and en route saved precious minutes in the emergency room at Inova Fairfax Hospital. She was transported shortly after arrival to her room in the intensive care unit.

A staffer from the emergency room stopped by Alison’s room a day or two later. Jack Roney said the woman seemed to be “in awe” of the care that Alison received by the EMTs.

“It’s not so much about us as it is about the efforts of the fire and rescue service,” said Jack Roney. “Their incredible professionalism saved our daughter’s life.”

Alison Roney spent nine days in ICU, much of the time under sedatives. She recalls very little of her whole experience. Her first ingestible meal, spaghetti, came four days after her heart attack. Her mother said she ate and she remembers that. In the hospital’s pediatric intensive care unit, Deborah Roney was called “the mom who saved her daughter’s life.”

Alison Roney left Fairfax Hospital with a defibrillator implant. The life-saving device, known as an ICD, is a small battery-powered electrical impulse generator. When the implanted defibrillator detects arrhythmia, it sends a jolt of electricity to the heart.

“I feel good, normal,” said Alison, a rising sophomore in George C. Marshall High School’s International Baccalaureate program. “Doesn’t seem like any of this happened, except for the scar. I just expect to be alive.”

At approximately 3:00 P.M. on Friday, July 30, 2010, a private rafting party of Boy Scouts arrived at Sheep Gulch Boat Ramp on the Snake River with a 16 year-old male in acute cardiac arrest receiving Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR).

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Forest Service River Rangers, nearby commercial river guides, and party members assisted with CPR while river rangers retrieved and deployed an on-site automated external defibrillator (AED).

The use of the AED led to the victim regaining pulse and breathing at the boat ramp prior to a very prompt arrival and transport of the victim by Alpine Ambulance to Star Valley Medical Center (SVMC) where the patient was treated and later transported to Children’s’ Hospital in Salt Lake City, Utah.

The problem began when the rafting party arrived at an area often used to jump off cliffs into the Snake River. The teen complained of his heart racing just before going into a seizure. Group members immediately began CPR when needed, and quickly floated to the closest boat ramp where rangers received them while requesting an ambulance and retrieving the AED kept on-site.

A doctor on-scene, staff at SVMC, and officials at Children’s Hospital in Utah all have reported that the teen is alive with no apparent brain damage due to the quick thinking of the scouts and forest rangers to start and continue CPR, having a nearby AED and using it properly, quick medical response by nearby Alpine Ambulance, and the water temperature of the river slowing internal processes. The victim will be receiving surgery today to fix a genetic heart problem that had not been previously found.

The Snake River Management Program is believed to be the first river section to obtain, store and deploy AEDs at busy river access areas in the country. Two AED’s costing over $3,000 each were provided for use in 2001 by the Snake River Fund, a nonprofit donation collecting organization formed to help pay for basic services on the National Forest in lieu of the having to pay mandatory fees. Two additional AEDs were provided this year by the Snake River Fund working with an anonymous benefactor and friends. As a result, AEDs and backboards were stored at the closest evacuation points below two of the larger rapids during high-water season in hopes of helping the public at a critical time.

“I’d like to recognize the professionalism and huge scope of work the forest river rangers are responsible for and do an amazing job accomplishing. From working with a sometimes unfriendly public, cleaning and fixing facilities, managing and maintaining the peace at ramps, initiating search & rescue and emergency medical situations, and covering the water, banks, and nearby highway emergencies, we expect a great deal from our people, and our 2010 crew has gone above and beyond what we would call heroic,” said Jackson District Ranger, Dale Deiter. The river crew appreciates the continued help of Star Valley Search & Rescue and all bystanders including professional river guides who delayed their trips to assist in the chain of care.

Chris Campbell, 17, crumpled to the ground shortly after a group of Bedford athletes started stretching at the school just after 7 p.m. Tuesday.

“It was a voluntary pre-conditioning workout for all athletes,” said Mark German, who has been recommended to replace the retired Bill Regnier as Bedford’s athletic director. “They were just stretching when he collapsed. I understand that he wasn’t feeling well going into the workout.”

“I looked back and he just had collapsed. He was laying on the ground and he started to have a seizure,” his cousin Daniel Campbell, Jr. said.

Football coaches Lou Nickle and John Groll began administering cardiopulmonary resuscitation immediately.

“Lou and John were just fantastic,” Bedford head coach Jeff Wood said. “Without those two jumping right on and doing CPR, he would be in far worse shape.

“They did everything right. They are great men. The jumped right in without even thinking.”

Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy Jeremy Lestock was patrolling just a half-mile away from the high school when the call came in. He was in the scene in minutes.

Deputy Lestock retrieved an automated external defibrillator from his cruiser and used it on Campbell.

“He was down and not breathing,” Lestock said. “Luckily, we were right around the corner. That’s probably what saved him.

“Two coaches were already doing CPR. I got out my AED just like we are trained and hooked it up like I have numerous times before and shocked him.”

The Bedford Fire Department and Monroe Community Ambulance arrived moments later. the time Campbell was loaded into an ambulance, he was breathing on his own.

Lestock, who has been a Monroe County Sheriff’s Deputy for 15 years, was impressed with the way that the coaches, firemen and paramedics handled the situation.

“It went as smooth as smooth can be for a scenario like that,” he said. “The way that everyone reacted is why he is still alive.”

Wood, who said about 100 athletes were doing the conditioning workout when Campbell collapsed, was equally impressed.

“There wasn’t any panic,” he said. “Coach (Jeff) Potter and my dad (LeRoy Wood) took care of the other kids while Lou, John and I helped Chris.”

Toledo Hospital reported Tuesday night that Campbell was in stable condition breathing on his own but in the intensive care in an induced coma.

Monroe County Sheriff’s deputies have carried AEDs in their cars for the past five or six years. Lestock was glad he had one Tuesday night.

“They’re expensive, but they are worth it if they save one person’s life,” he said. “I’ll tell you what, you get on that high with what you just accomplished in a situation like that. Then you have to step back and collect yourself and get that next call.”

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.

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.

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.

Quick thinking and an external defibrillator helped save the life of a Gates-Chili Middle School student.

Michael Candileri & Julie Savage the Saviours

Years of training paid off for Gates-Chili coach Michael Candileri and athletic trainer Julie Savage. The defibrillator couldn’t have been in a better location, just steps from where the stricken girl fell.

Candileri said, “You know, you’re just calming yourself and keeping yourself under control, making sure you’re doing everything correctly. The only thought in your mind is to save this girl.”

Savage used the defibrillator to give eighth grader Olivia Fish the initial shock. “The AED analyzed her again and said continue CPR — all good signs that she didn’t need to be shocked again.”

“You know, for a split second, you thought about what you were doing and then I stopped thinking and I said I just have to do and I can’t think,” Candileri said.

Paramedics took over when they arrived but the coach said, that’s when he thought about what ultimately could have happened because when the outcome was still uncertain when the girl was taken to the hospital.

But everything went right that day. The shock Savage delivered and the CPR saved the girl’s life.

Both the coach and the athletic trainer have had a chance to see the girl and they said just seeing and talking with her — that’s been the most gratifying thing.

She is still in the hospital but is expected to go home soon. The school district said her family has expressed its gratitude for all that’s been done.

Swift actions by a school nurse, two police officers and a firefighter are being credited with saving the life of a Bergenfield High School student who had collapsed.

The 17-year-old girl, who collapsed at the school on Friday, March 5, is recovering in the cardiac care center at Beth Israel Medical Center in Newark.

Police Capt. Michael Carr said that a two-man police unit responded to the scene, and when they arrived they were told by school personnel that a defibrillator would be needed.

At the same time, Robert Burns, one of the borough’s full-time firefighters, heard the call on the police radio and rushed over to the high school from the Prospect Fire Company 1 firehouse located across from the school, with the defibrillator.

Carr said that credit for saving the girl’s life goes to the two police officers, Frank DaCosta and David Keelor, the latter rookie on the force, who joined school nurse Susan Schielzo in performing CPR on the girl, along with Burns who applied the defibrillator.

Kuchar praised all of the responders, calling them “incredible people.” He also said that Schielzo responded to the girl “like a real mama bear.”

“She treated her like she was her own daughter,” he said.

Carr said defibrillators were recently acquired by the fire department.

“They are very easy to apply, the machine does all of the work,” he said.

Hunter Cairns plays high school baseball in Los Alamitos.

Hunter Cairns the Survivor

Last July, Cairns was at bat and attempting to bunt, but the pitch came in low and fast, smacking him hard in the chest.

Cairns’ grandfather, Jack Lee, retired from the Long Beach Fire Department, his grandfather’s friend, Steve Roberts, an active duty fireman with the LBFD, and his dad, Jason, were watching from the third base line and knew it was a wallop.

Cairns ran about 50 feet toward first base and collapsed face down in the dirt.

When the first base coach turned Cairns onto his back, he took one look at Cairns’ face and shouted for someone to call 911.

Lee and Roberts rushed to Cairns. They ripped open his shirt to look for broken ribs, but saw none. Lee started chest compressions while Roberts performed rescue breaths.

When paramedics arrived, they told the men to continue performing CPR while they began defibrillation.

After the first shock, Cairns started breathing on his own. He was taken to a hospital, where he regained consciousness 17 hours later.