Quick-thinking busboy saves woman's life with CPR

Patron in her 80s starts choking; Wilson High senior, 18, responds

Brett Hambright

Reading Eagle

Nathan Cruz is one busboy you better be sure to tip well.

The Wilson High School senior clears tables, greets customers and, oh yeah, saves lives in a pinch.

Halfway into his Saturday night shift at Circle S Ranch House restaurant along Penn Avenue in Spring Township, Cruz heard a hysterical woman in the dining room.

"I was about to bus a table when I heard a woman screaming, 'My mom is choking,' " Cruz, 18, recalled Sunday. "She was hysterical."

The woman's mother was choking on food.

The choking victim, who Cruz said was in her 80s, was short of breath and turning blue when he sprang into action. He prepared to do the Heimlich maneuver when the woman lost consciousness.

Cruz, a junior firefighter with the Western Berks Fire Department and an emergency medical technician trainee, knew to get the woman on her back and start chest compressions.

"It just happened so fast - I just acted," Cruz said. "I was nervous because she was out."

Another patron, who is a nurse, stood by while Cruz administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation.

Within a couple minutes, the lodged food - a piece of roast beef - came out of the woman's mouth.

A few more resuscitative breaths from Cruz, and the woman was awake and alert.

Spring Township police and a supervisor with Western Berks EMS said Cruz might have saved the woman's life.

"It certainly seems like he made a difference," said Bill Baldwin, a Western Berks supervisor who was dispatched to the restaurant.

When a person loses consciousness, Baldwin said, time is precious.

"You have four minutes, and then brain cells start dying," he said.

The woman was taken by ambulance to Reading Hospital and is believed to be doing fine, according to Baldwin.

Her name wasn't available Sunday. Police, medics and restaurant officials weren't sure who she was.

She also was a stranger to Cruz. Still, the teen said his actions were no big deal.

"I'm not looking for a pat on the back," he said. "I was just doing what I was taught."

Cruz is trained in basic life support care and is taking EMT classes.

Oh, and he made sure that the table was cleared off, too.

"Afterwards, it was right back to work," he said. "It was pretty overwhelming. But I pulled it together."

Contact Brett Hambright: 610-371-5022 or bhambright@readingeagle.com.

PLAINSBORO: Heart association honors eight who save student

[From the Princeton Packet]

The American Heart Association recently recognized eight Plainsboro heroes for helping to save the life of a West Windsor/Plainsboro High School student who fell victim to sudden cardiac arrest during a physical education class in October.

Principal Michael Zapicchi, physical education teachers Trevor Warner and Tammy Petrocelli, school nurse Patricia Walsh, R.N., along with Chief Richard Furda, Patrolman Martin McElrath and emergency medical technicians Austin Fountain and Brian Barbarise were recognized by the association for their preparedness, quick response and appropriate action to save the student’s life.

As the student collapsed during gym class, teachers Trevor Warner and Tammy Petrocelli initiated the school’s medical emergency response plan. Mr. Warner immediately began CPR while Ms. Petrocelli radioed for help. Nurse Patricia Walsh called emergency services. First responder Patrolman Martin McElrath arrived within minutes, quickly followed by local emergency technicians Mr. Fountain and Mr. Barbarise who used an AED (automatic external defibrillator) to help save the student’s life.

In a sudden cardiac arrest, seconds count. Often, a victim’s survival depends on quick action by the people around them. Less than one-third of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest victims receive CPR from a bystander. Without immediate CPR, the chance of surviving out-of-hospital cardiac arrest drops up to 10 percent for each minute that passes without defibrillation. This means that by the time EMS personnel arrive on the scene it could be too late.

The American Heart Association and several other organizations collaborated to create Medical Emergency Response Plan for Schools (MERPS). This plan includes recommendations to help schools prepare for critical medical emergencies, such as sudden cardiac arrest. This plan focuses on five key areas including effective communication, coordinated emergency response plan, risk identification, training and the use of an AED.

Each recipient received a Heart Saver Award certificate acknowledging their outstanding and lifesaving actions.

___________

Presented with American Heart Association Heart Savers Awards were, from left in front, Principal Michael Zapicchi, Chief Richard Furda, EMT Brian Barbarise, school nurse Patricia Walsh, and, from left in back, Patrolman Martin McElwrath, EMT Austin Fountain and teacher Trevor Warner. Not pictured was award winner Tammy Petrocelli.

Nobody is exempt.

[NB: I discussed the incident with the reporter who covered it and was re-assured that CPR began immediately in the classroom while the school nurse was summoned. CPR was not delayed while waiting for the nurse.]

A Liberty High School student collapsed in his seat at school Thursday morning and was pronounced dead later in the day at St. Luke's Hospital in Fountain Hill, according to the superintendent of the Bethlehem Area School District.

Superintendent Joseph Roy said this evening that the boy, a 10^th-grader, was sitting in his seat in English class when he collapsed. School nurses were summoned immediately and performed CPR until police officers and EMS arrived. Responders also tried to resuscitate the teen until he was transported by ambulance to the hospital, Roy said.

Roy said the Lehigh County coroner's office informed him at 1:30 p.m. that the teenager died.

"The deputy coroner told me that there was nothing that appeared to cause his death and they would have to do an autopsy," Roy said. He declined to identify the boy, saying such information had to be released by the coroner's office.

Chief Deputy Coroner Paul Zondlo said the student was pronounced dead after unsuccessful resuscitation efforts at the hospital. He couldn't give the boy's name until all next of kin is notified.

Zondlo couldn't say what happened until an autopsy is done tomorrow.

Roy said all Liberty parents will receive automated calls later this evening informing them that a student has died. Extra counselors will be at Liberty Friday to help students and staff cope with the death.

"Obviously, we will reach out to the family and students and teachers as well," Roy said.

December voting has begun...please write

To those of you who are following PracticalCPR.blogspot.com, it would be a large time-saver for me if you would send an email to me at BobT@slicc.org - that way I can communicate will all of you at the same time.

If you received the early morning email blast today, you are already on the mail list.

Thanks, for your support.

Bob

500 fewer people would die every day in the U.S.A if...

...they had their cardiac arrest where someone trained in CPR saw them arrest.

We're making progress, teammates, but not nearly fast enough. We're not talking about learning Bystander CPR so that you can save a person you don't know - we're talking about learning Bystander CPR so that one of your family members or friends or acquaintances won't needlessly die.

This message is blunt, because gentle doesn't work. If you are not CPR trained, it's more likely because you don't understand that your odds of seeing a family member, friend, or acquaintance have a cardiac arrest is about one-in-seven than it is because you don't care. If you don't know Bystander CPR, you have a fourteen percent chance of having to live with watching someone you know die, with you unable to do the simple steps that might have prevented the death.

The message is simple: If you are CPR trained, brush up every year or so. If you are not CPR trained, please stop playing Russian Roulette with the pistol pointed at a family member's head. Learn CPR before someone you know dies because you didn't.

Best,

Bob

_____________________________________

November 27, 2010

Boulevard Bolt runners save man's life with CPR

By Nicole Young
THE TENNESSEAN

Most people would say there's nothing lucky about having a heart attack, but for Germain Boer, the time and place were about as lucky as you can get.

Boer, 73, was recovering on Friday evening in the critical care unit at Saint Thomas Hospital. He had a heart attack Thursday morning while running in the Boulevard Bolt, a Thanksgiving tradition in Belle Meade.

"I think everything is going to be fine," said son Bob Boer. "He is awake and I was able to speak with him earlier. I told him some of the news reports were putting him at between 50 and 60 years old and he just laughed."

The elder Boer, a professor of accounting and director of the Owen Entrepreneurship Center at Vanderbilt University, runs the Bolt every year, his son said.

"He's very active and healthy," said Bob Boer. "He goes to the gym at Vanderbilt in the mornings and has his routine with his gym team, and he runs on the greenway.

"I just thank God this happened with 8,000 people instead of when he was off by himself somewhere."

Germain Boer was about a mile and a half into the Boulevard Bolt when he had the heart attack, said Troy Sparks, who was running the race for the first time alongside his wife, Beth.

The Sparkses are both registered nurses — he's in the operating room at StoneCrest, she's a nurse at John Overton High School.

Boer's luck began with the Sparkses being about 5 feet away when he collapsed.

"We thought he had tripped, so I went to see if he was OK and saw that he wasn't breathing," said Troy Sparks, who immediately began CPR. "He was purple and bleeding. He'd fallen facedown and cut his face.

"He didn't have a pulse."

Within seconds, half a dozen other runners were helping in the CPR effort.

A minute later, Boer got lucky again. Dr. Corey Slovis joined the crew.

When it comes to emergency medicine, Slovis is among the best. He is chairman of the department of emergency medicine at Vanderbilt University Medical Center and medical director for the Nashville Fire Department and Nashville International Airport.

"I was running, and I saw a number of people off to the side," said Slovis, whose family has run in the Bolt for the past 10 years. "When I looked closer, I saw someone doing compressions, and that got my attention."

Doctor was awestruck

Slovis, a doctor for about 30 years, said he was in awe by the first responders.

"Saving lives involves just a few things, and those people were doing them perfectly," he said. "There was no way it could have gone better. The only thing I did was what I do every day.

"What Nashville needs to be proud of is that so many people knew how to do expert compression CPR and they were able to come together and save this man's life. That's the real story here."

As the crew alternated doing compressions, an ambulance arrived and paramedics took over. Slovis went with him to Saint Thomas.

"Moments after I left the room, he had a (heart) rhythm," he said. "Him getting CPR within moments of collapsing is what saved his life."

Boer's son credits Slovis and Sparks with saving his father's life.

"I'm no hero," Sparks said. "We just happened to be at the right place at the right time, and there were other people there besides us who jumped in and did a lot.

This save was improbable.

Bystander & Medics Save Driver in Vehicle Crash

Posted by cocreator on November 28, 2010
News

“It’s overwhelming that people cared and took such initiative for a stranger,” said Scott McGuffin. “We have a lot to be thankful for this Thanksgiving,” said his wife, Colleen. “We’re just so lucky to have people who helped and a hospital that has been innovative.”

Scott McGuffin the Survivor

Eight days before Thanksgiving, McGuffin had a heart attack while driving in Doylestown near the Mercer Museum. He fell unconscious and crashed into two vehicles before slamming into a sign.

Frank Sturza saw the accident, called 911 and ran over and shut off McGuffin’s vehicle, which was revving, authorities said. Cpl. William Doucette of Doylestown police, who was soon on scene, began administering CPR in a desperate effort to save the man’s life, the McGuffins said.

Central Bucks Ambulance personnel arrived and the EMTs used a defibrillator to jump-start McGuffin’s heart. The shock treatment got McGuffin’s heart back into pace just as the ambulance arrived at Doylestown Hospital, said Eugene Vallely, a registered nurse at the hospital.

But McGuffin had experienced a major cardiac arrest and had been unresponsive for about 20 minutes, his heart lapsed in a lethal rhythm, said Vallely. The experts feared brain damage.

“It was very emotional not knowing what was going to happen,” said Colleen McGuffin.

But by last Thursday, McGuffin began to move his fingers and show signs that he could respond to voices, his wife said. By Friday, he could squeeze hands and perform a “thumbs-up” gesture.

“They started taking him off the respirator. That was a big milestone. They began taking out the other tubes,” said Colleen McGuffin. “I started to have a huge sigh of relief that he was going to be OK.”

McGuffin emerged with his long-term memory in working order. Over the weekend he had trouble remembering new things, but by Monday he was already able to recall what had happened the previous day.

He can’t remember the heart attack or accident, but on Tuesday he was walking and talking and expressing thanks for the effort and good fortune that kept him among the living against what medical experts said was fairly steep odds.

In fact, McGuffin’s ribs are what bother him most. Nine of them were broken while CPR was being administered. Vallely said such rigorous CPR was necessary.

“The fact that he got such good quality CPR saved his life,” Vallely said.

McGuffin’s survival was not only emotional for him, his wife and their two adult sons, but also for all involved who helped him, said Vallely.

Read more: http://www.firstaidcorps.org/2010/11/28/bystander-medics-save-driver-in-vehicle-crash/#ixzz16cJGrKkx

Here is what it takes to save a life...

School Coach & Firefighters Save Student during Basketball Practice

Posted by cocreator on November 25, 2010
Events

A Healdsburg High School student was revived with a defibrillator this morning after he stopped breathing during basketball practice, Healdsburg Fire Chief Steve Adams said.

The fire department and Bell’s Ambulance arrived at the school three minutes after receiving a 911 call at 10:22 a.m., Adams said.

A high school coach was performing CPR on the boy, who was not breathing and had no pulse, Adams said.

Firefighters continued CPR and applied a defibrillator once to the boy’s chest. The teen gasped and his breathing and pulse resumed a short time later, Adams said.

The boy was stabilized before he was taken to Healdsburg District Hospital. He was then transferred to Oakland’s Children’s Hospital by REACH helicopter, Adams said.

Adams attributed the successful life-saving effort to the coach, who he said recognized the medical emergency and immediately starting CPR, and the quick response by firefighters and emergency medical responders.

Read more: http://www.firstaidcorps.org/2010/11/25/school-coach-firefighters-save-student-during-basketball-practice/#ixzz16PZ2BwBV