Archive - Blog entry

Retired firefighters use AED to save golfer
By GEORGIA ZERMENO, Reporter, The Friday Flyer

"It was about 4:15 or 4:30 p.m.," says Liz Hefferon. "I was picking my husband up after he completed a game of golf, and we went into the clubhouse for a drink – that's when it happened."

A moment that changed some lives, a moment that saved another's life.

According to Golf Course employee Ian Nelson, he was working the desk when someone opened the door and yelled, "Call 911, we have someone down on the 18th hole!"

Ian immediately called 911 and gave them the location, had someone watch the desk and headed out to see how he could help.

Ian says what he witnessed was amazing. "They were doing CPR, then they did the defibrillator. The guy was blue, lifeless, and then suddenly he took a gasp of air. They saved his life."

Fabrice Muamba, 23, a British soccer player, suffered sudden cardiac arrest on March 17, and was clinically dead for 78 minutes before being resuscitated. He has since recovered and was discharged from the hospital on April 16. Whether or not he will continue as a footballer has yet to be decided. For now, he wants to spend precious time with his family.

On April 14, Italian soccer player Piermario Morosini, 25, suffered SCA during a match. Unfortunately, he could not be resuscitated.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nLzhTwPYIJ4

Vermont already has their law in place, and New York is considering the issue again.

Inch-by-inch we'll get there.

Quick thinking saves the life of a Bixby high school student

By Rick Couri
Not everyone is good in a crisis situation but Monday in Bixby, several were. A student at Bixby high school called 911 after a 15 year old named John collapsed from cardiac arrest. EMSA dispatcher Trent Morris took that call and talked a teacher through the use of an AED. "Luckily Bixby high school has their teachers trained in CPR and AED use and that's what saved that young mans life" trent told us.

The AED did it's job and John's heart responded. He was taken to St Francis hospital where he was in critical condition. Thursday Morris got a rare treat, he met John’s grandmother Barbara Smart. Barbara hugged Trent for what seemed like minutes while she repeated "Thank you Trent, thank you Trent, bless your heart."

Boy Goes Into Cardiac Arrest at Little League Game

An 11-year-old boy was revived after going into cardiac arrest after being hit by a pitch during a Monday night Little League game at Cook Park in Colonie, N.Y.
It was a balmy night in the Albany suburb. In the bottom of the first inning the little leaguer went up to bat. The ball struck him in the chest, causing him to collapse to the ground.

He had suffered from a condition called commotio cordis. It is incredibly rare, occurring only three to four times a year nationally [sic] and mostly in young boys while playing sports.

“It’s an agitation of the heart,” said Colonie EMS Chief Peter Berry. “It happens when a sports player suffers blunt force trauma. If it hits just right, it disrupts the heart’s electric signals and sends the child into cardiac arrest.”

The next few moments were full of fright for onlookers.

“It was scary for everyone involved,” said Frank Prevratil

Ely rugby player saved after bystander CPR

Tuesday, 10 April 2012 14:52

Alan Turpie suffered a cardiac arrest on Saturday afternoon whilst playing for Ely Tigers at Shelford. He was resuscitated on the pitch by team mates before paramedics arrived.

Gary Spitzer, of the East of England Ambulance Service (EEAS), said: "I'd like to thank the patient's team-mates who gave us fantastic support at the scene. Their concern for their friend was clear and they helped us in every way they could."

The EEAS also said it had given instructions on how to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) to Turpie's team mates.

Andrew Roszak, JD, MPA, EMT-P, a nationally recognized expert on AED law and a member of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation Advisory Board, highlights an important development in his article, "If an AED is legislatively mandated, is there a duty to use it?"

He describes a new law which is the first to impose an affirmative duty on AED owners.

"Entities with AEDs should be aware of this development in AED law," says Roszak. "AEDs should be utilized in any situation in which they are indicated. Otherwise, the responder or business may end up having to defend a lawsuit and explain why the device was not used."

Read more here.

Hello All,

I'm very grateful to have been accepted to this site and hope to find some advice from those who have been here longer.

My mother suffered a sudden cardiac arrest in 2008. By the grace of God and a great amount of luck, she's still here with us. She surrvived with minimal brain damage thaks to therapeutic hypothermia. She now has an internal defibrillator.

At the time of her hospitalization, all they were able to tell us was that the cause of her Cardiac Arrest was idopathic. She has a slightly enlarged left ventricle, but they were unsure if this was the cause of her Cardiac Arrest, or if this was the result of the Cardiac Arrest. I'm sure there are many of you out there who have recieved such ambiguous answers. It's especially frustrating for me as I work in the medical field and although I know that medicine can only explain so much, I would greatly appreciate an answer other than "I don't know."

Reflect for a moment that the lowest save rate for cardiac arrest victims is on a farm and the highest is at the Phoenix, AZ airport. It's not that farms are unhealthy and airports are not. Just look to the AHA chain of survival the CARES project, the Denmark study, and the Phoenix results for the answer.

The best chance of surviving comes when someone sees you go down, determines that you're non-responsive and not breathing, calls 911, immediately begins chest compressions, defibrillates within 2-3 minutes, and get picked up by the ambulance within a few more.

Thus, to improve your chances of surviving an out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest, someone else in your house has to know CPR and has to be there. But to really ring the bell, there has to be an AED in the home. This is taught by the Phoenix Airport's stunning "save with major brain function intact" average rate of 75%.