Peris Joyner, Seattle, WA – 55 at time of event (2009)
King County has a reputation for “saves” that is envied by many in the emergency services community. Peris is aware of this fact, and can testify to its veracity. The retired bank manager and his wife Carlla had decided to check out the new SoundTransit light rail connection to the airport one July weekend.
It was a lovely sunny day and they thought an afternoon ride on the new spur would be fun. That was not to be the case, however. It was opening day for the spur and SoundTransit employees were at every station, meeting and greeting the travelers...lots of fanfare and attention to their “guests.”. But, almost as soon as they began the trip, Peris didn’t feel too well. He stood up and said to Carlla, “ I need to get off this train, now!” Incredibly, the doors opened at that instant and he was able to step onto the platform. “And that’s the last thing I remember...”
Peris was more than lucky, he was in the right place at the right time, but also aware of the danger he faced.
“That was probably one of the brightest moves I ever made! Recognizing that something was wrong and I needed to get off the train.”
At that moment he collapsed to the ground, frightening Carlla who knelt at his side and cradled his head in her arms. They were seen by a SoundTransit project engineer, who ran over and said to Carla,“You gotta let me have him, now!” He immediately started hands-only CPR. 9-1-1 was called and 3 minutes 45 seconds later the first EMS crew arrived with an AED*. It is interesting to note that this station was underground, in a tunnel, and the ambulance had to drive down the train-tracks to get him to the hospital.
“I not going to say I ruined their opening day, but I certainly tested their protocols!” Peris joked.
Here again there was more than luck involved.“King county [was] participating in a study, [where] they [either] put a cooling jacket on you in the field, and the other they put some kind of device over your chest that does CPR.” Peris relayed. “I was [in the group] that had the device put over my chest. And somehow they were shocking me. I came back, they lost me, I came back again.”
Finally, after three rounds of defibrillation, he stabilized and was transported to HarborView hospital, the county trauma center. There he also received therapeutic hypothermia treatment. Peris was kept in a medically induced coma longer than usual, “I was combative, and when I started coming around my heart would start racing. They had to knock me back out again because they thought I was going to crash again!”
It took many attempts over the next nine days to finally get Peris extubated and conscious. All this time Kaela, his college-age daughter, and Carlla sat by his side and hoped for the best. An infection delayed the implantation procedure for a few more days and eventually Peris received a bi-ventricular pacemaker and defibrillator. Not all SCA survivors receive this type of device.
“First, I do have a heart condition. I have cardiomyopathy. I was diagnosed about 12 years ago,” Peris stated for the record. He then went on to say it hadn’t affected his lifestyle. “No problems with normal activity, none at all. I have a 27% ejection fraction. I really don’t have very many limitations.” He went for regular checkups with his cardiologist. “I was warned, years ago, that I should probably get an internal cardiac defibrillator. Because I felt pretty good, I never felt the need.” He has no qualms about having one now...
Alas, the story doesn’t end there. “Six weeks later I had to come back for a cardiac ablation,” Peris said. He had developed a new condition called Supra Ventricular Tachycardia where the heart starts beating very fast due to abnormal electrical pathways. “So that was in September, and then in November one of the [ICD] leads malfunctioned. It didn’t shock me, but the ICD vibrated [to alert him that something was wrong], like a cell phone vibrates.” This entailed yet another procedure to replace the faulty lead.
“I haven’t had any discharges on my defibrillator, I get my regular checkups and everything. The last thing the doctor said to me was, ‘I can’t believe how many lives you have!’ ”
-Jeremy Whitehead
* And Peris has the EMS records to prove it.