My "Shocking" Expereince

My story needs a little background before I get to my actual "death."

My wife, Susie, and I have been members of the Humeston First Responders since it started in 1987. Humeston, Iowa (Pop. 543), is located approximately 55 miles south of Des Moines near the Missouri border. In our area of the state, the ambulances are hospital-based in the county seat towns, so some people have a wait of 20-30 minutes---or longer---for the arrival of an ambulance. Most of the towns have volunteer groups who go to the scene of a medical emergency and assist until the ambulance arrives.

We became Co-Presidents of our group in 2002. One of the first things Susie did was to send in a grant application to the Iowa Department of Health EMS Bureau for a new AED. The grant was funded by the federal government under the Rural & Community Access to Emergency Medical Devices program.

We received our new AED in May, 2003, to replace an older one we had. Its first use on a real patient came on July 27, 2003, when we were called to the home of a then-59-year-old man who had collapsed in his yard five miles south of town. On our arrival, his son and daughter were doing CPR. We took over the CPR and hooked him up to the AED. Due to the distance, it had been at least ten minutes since he had collapsed before the first shock was given---but the CPR had bought us time. His pulse returned after three shocks, although he remained unconscious during the ambulance trip to the Wayne County Hospital 12 miles away and the helicopter flight to Des Moines.

Two weeks later, he was released from the hospital becoming our first CPR/AED "save" in all the years of the First Responders' existence. It was a great feeling to know I had helped save someone's life---but I never imagined what could happen eight months later......

On April 2, 2004, I was part of the cast of a local play presented as a fund-raiser for our local swimming pool. The play ending the first night was the last thing I remember. As Susie has told me, I talked to some people who had been in the audience and then started to leave when I said that I was having chest pain. I had a heart attack a year earlier but had no pain with it---I just could not breathe one night.

As I drove home, the chest pain continued. We went in the house and talked about going to the hospital 20 miles away or calling the ambulance. I said the pain would probably be gone by the time we got there. Susie told me to take a nitro pill and then she took my blood pressure. It was 70/40! She told me to spit out the nitro and she called the Lucas County Health Center where she works as an Emergency Room Nurse and told them to send the ambulance. As she hung up the phone, my face turned red and I stiffened. I was in cardiac arrest! As Susie began CPR, our daughter, Amy, called 911 to the Wayne County Sheriff's Office where I work as a dispatcher and told my fellow dispatcher to make sure the First Responders were coming and to tell the Lucas County Ambulance this was no longer a "chest pain" call--- It was a "CPR in progress" call.

The Humeston First Responders arrived in just 2-3 minutes and the first shock was delivered in less than four minutes from the time I arrested. The first shock started my heart---for about 20 seconds. The CPR and the shocks continued. My pulse would come back for 20-30 seconds then stop. The ambulance arrived 20 minutes later and the paramedic began administering the cardiac drugs. After 43 minutes of the combination of CPR, 22 AED shocks, and the drugs, my heartbeat and breathing returned to stay.

Still unconscious, I was loaded into the ambulance. About half-way to the hospital, I regained consciousness and started fighting them due to the combi-tube that was stuck down my throat.
After 32 minutes in the ER, I was flown by the Mercy One helicopter to Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines where I had to be cardioverted three times (I am glad I do not remember this because I was shocked while I was conscious).

Remember, I had just been in a play and during the entire time, none of the medical people asked why their 55-year-old male patient was wearing make-up!

My memory came back about 18 hours later. An ICD was implanted and I went home eight days later as the Humeston First Responders' second "save." I returned to work in six weeks and am able to do everything I could before the SCA.

Since that time, Susie was awarded the AHA Heartsaver Award for her part in saving my life with her quick start of CPR. She and I have trained several area people in CPR and how to use an AED. In January, 2006, we went to Washington, DC, to assist the American Heart Association in teaching the new CPR Anytime class to staff members of the U. S. House and Senate. We have made three other trips to Washington to urge lawmakers to continue funding for the Rural & Community Access to Emergency Medical Devices program which the President keeps trying to eliminate from the budget. We have also made several visits to the Iowa Capitol to make legislators aware of the value of placing AEDs in public places. Since my "sudden death," AEDs have been placed in our county courthouse, our two local school buildings, and in three of the sheriff's patrol cars. Susie and I are now trying to raise money through grants and donations to put AEDs in all school buildings in Wayne County. For these efforts, we were proud to receive recognition this year from ASIS International and from Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines.

Susie and I believe there is a reason I survived---and that reason is to help spread awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and to show the importance of AEDS and early defibrillation so that others may have the same chance that I did!

H. R. "Butch" Gibbs
SCA Survivor
Humeston, Iowa