One minute Roger Shearer was doing what he does every day,
trying to fix a piece of equipment on B.Braun’s high-tech manufacturing floor.
The next, he was flat on his back, his heart stopped and his
face rapidly turning blue. The 45-year-old equipment mechanic suffered sudden
cardiac arrest that day last August.
“I went over to make a few adjustments, when I turned to
walk away I walked about three steps and dropped dead on the floor,” said
Shearer of Wind Gap. “I woke up six days later in the hospital, and my brother
told me I had a heart attack at work and I had no idea.”
In between, Shearer’s co-workers and local emergency
responders leapt into action, using training they received through B. Braun to
shock his heart back to life using an automated external defibrillator, and got
him to Lehigh Valley Hospital-Muhlenberg where doctors could stabilize him.
On Wednesday, the company held a ceremony at its facility in
Hanover Township, Lehigh County, to show its appreciation as well.
“It’s the best thing in the world,” said Shearer, who went
back to work in November. “I will be grateful to them for the rest of my life.”
Though it happened more than three months ago, Shearer’s
attack was still fresh in the minds of his co-workers.
Deanna Feidler, a product assembly worker who was on the
floor at the time, remembered hearing one of her co-workers yell Shearer’s
name, then saw him lying motionless on the floor. She immediately triggered the
company’s first responder alert, called 911 and ran for the nearest
defibrillator.
Feidler, 44, who has been with the company for two decades,
said Shearer’s heart may have stopped, but hers was beating out of her chest.
“It was just like racing, and you are all nervous and your
emotions are running high,” she said. “I mean this is your co-worker, a guy
that you know, and he’s a great guy and you are just like in shock.”
Machine operator Pam Evans, who arrived at Shearer's side
soon after Feidler went to get the defibrillator, said it quickly became
evident Shearer was in trouble.
“He was purple,” she said. “We called for the one paramedic
we knew we had in the building.”
Then they cut away Shearer’s clothes, administered oxygen
and initiated CPR while another worker, Marvin Muffley, 45, of Nazareth, hooked
up the defibrillator, which scanned Shearer's heart, did not detect a heartbeat
and recommended a jolt. Muffley administered the shock and they detected a weak
heartbeat.
“It was just like a big jolt to his body and he still was
incoherent and everything,” said Corey Koerner, 40, of Bethlehem, the last to
arrive on the scene. “It took a couple of seconds and you could start seeing a
faint heartbeat. Eventually it got stronger and stronger and he started
breathing a little. It sounded like he was snoring. And he turned back to
white.”
They all breathed a sigh of relief. The whole thing only
took about 12 minutes, before paramedics rolled Shearer out and took him to the
hospital, leaving behind the exhausted workers, some of whom broke into tears.
“It all happened so fast,” Evans said.
Shearer's co-workers credited the training they were
provided through the company by trainer Earl Ostrander of CPR Road Tour.
“It’s something you’re glad you can do but you pray to God
you never have to use it,” said Evans, 46, of Bethlehem.
Ostrander, who describes himself as a semi-retired emergency
medical technician, said he responded to more than 50 cardiac arrests in his 15
years on the job, but never managed to save a life. He considers Shearer’s his
first.
"I am like a proud -- I shouldn't say father -- pack
leader,” Ostrander said.
Shearer said his cardiologist attributed the heart attack to
stress. He had no underlying heart disease but had recently lost his wife,
Teresa Vargo-Shearer, who had fought an arduous 10-year battle with ovarian
cancer.
Now Shearer, who lives with his 19-year-old son, Nicholas
Vargo, said he takes every day as an unexpected gift.
“It’s changed me tremendously,” Shearer said. '”I do not
worry about anything. There is no more stress in my life.”
SOURCE: Scott Kraus, The Morning Call
http://www.mcall.com/news/all-a5_5bbraun.7111585dec10,0,5660027.story