Posted on 06/30/2010

CHESTERTON, IN–Chesterton, Indiana, Fire Department (CFD) firefighters saved a life on Tuesday at a bowling alley with a couple of shocks from an automated external defibrillator (AED).

But they had a helping pair of hands from a citizen at the scene.

Lt. Jamie Hicks told the Chesterton Tribune today that the CFD was dispatched to bowling alley—just around the corner from the fire house—in response to a report of a full cardiac arrest.

On the firefighters’ arrival, a woman whom Hicks identified as the owner’s wife and a nurse was already administering CPR to the victim, a retirement-aged gentleman.

“We took over CPR and then applied the AED,” Hicks said. “We shocked him two times. Then we did more CPR. By the time EMS got to the scene and we loaded the man into the ambulance, he was talking and breathing,” Hicks said.

Hicks noted that the CFD uses its AED on average twice a month, although not always as successfully as in this case.

Hicks gave full credit to the nurse on the scene. “Early CPR, early defibrillation, that’s the key to saving people,” he said.

SOURCE: Chesterton Tribune

Share