Connor Theis and his dad, Glenn, went to the men’s Gopher basketball game on Feb. 11. The Gophers were losing to Michigan, so the father and son left early. Glenn had complained about having trouble breathing, but he blamed the cold air. Connor thought nothing of it.

When they got to the car, Connor threw his coat in the back seat before getting into the passenger seat. That’s when he noticed his dad’s eyes were closed and his foot was on the gas pedal.

“He is making, like, this moaning noise, and it almost sounded like he was fake sleeping, so I’m like, ‘Dad, wake up. C’mon, let’s go, this isn’t funny,’” Connor said. “And he’s still doing it and, and I’m like, ‘Alright, I’m gonna call 911,’ thinking he would just start laughing at that but nope, he didn’t. Great, this is serious.”

It was as serious as a heart attack. Actually, in this case, Connor’s dad was having cardiac arrest. Fortunately, Connor remembered what he learned in Mr. Tiedens’ health class the year before.

“Me and this other guy start doing CPR and then the cops came, and I kept doing CPR until more help came,” Connor said.

“We only have the kids go through the cycle once, and then we do it again,” said Scott Tiedens. “And we make each of them do it out in the hallway all by themselves, in case they are in a situation where there’s nobody else to help. ”

The CPR instruction at the school is very short. Students like Connor don’t get certified. They don’t even put their mouths on the CPR Annie doll, because it would take too much class time to clean between students. Tiedens and his colleagues have talked about dropping the CPR class. After what happened to Connor, they won’t.

“You want to find right where the heart is, you put your hand on it like this and just keep doing that,” said Connor, as he demonstrated how to do CPR. He said it was harder to pump Annie’s chest than his own dad’s chest.

“It’s pretty neat to see, he remembered about everything,” Tiedens said.

“I’m thankful,” Connor said. “People say I saved my dad’s life. No, I wouldn’t have been able to save his life, if it hadn’t been for Mr. Tiedens, so basically he’s the one that saved my dad’s life.”

At Hennepin County Medical Center, Kathy Theis is counting miracles — that her son paid attention in class, that he was brave enough to work on his dad and that ER doctors did a CT scan.

While Glenn was treated for cardiac arrest, doctors noticed that he seemed altered. They thought he may have injured his head. The scan showed a tumor in Glenn’s brain, which may have been diagnosed too late if not for the cardiac arrest.

Kathy is also grateful to her son for his quick action.

“Words can’t even explain. We’re very, very proud of him. We always thought he was a good kid, and now, we know,” she said.

Paula Engelking, Producer
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Swanson Center for Youth staff helped save a man’s life at a Vidalia restaurant Tuesday afternoon while they were in town for a meeting with Office of Juvenile Justice staff.

Swanson Deputy Director Vernon Foy said the man collapsed in the restaurant and lost consciousness.

Swanson staffers, who were sitting across the restaurant, came to the man’s aid and found he didn’t have a pulse.

Several staffers performed cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) for about 10 minutes and were able to restore the man’s breathing before an ambulance showed up and rushed the man to a local hospital for treatment, Foy said.

The man is recovering at a Natchez, Miss. hospital.

“All of us just traded off doing CPR as each person got tired,” Foy said.

“The staff just stepped in and did what they were supposed to do — the Good Samaritan thing.”

All employees who work in the Office of Juvenile Justice facilities receive emergency training each year, said Fran Martin, director of staff development for the office.

“It was really heartwarming to see it pay off,” she said.

Jerel M. Giarrusso, Office of Juvenile Justice communications director, said the office was told the 80-year-old man had a heart attack.

She said staffers stopped by the hospital later in the day and learned from the man’s family that he was awake and talking.

She said the Swanson staffers never asked the man’s name.

Along with Martin and Foy, the other staffers who administered CPR were John Preston, Swanson La Mod coordinator; Rodney Alex, Swanson safety captain; William Lee, Swanson principal and John Brunn, Swanson maintenance manager.

Frankfort boy hopes his experience will urge more people to learn CPR

By BJ LUTZ

Updated 8:45 PM CST, Thu, Mar 4, 2010

PHOENIX – Friday was an emotional day at John C. Lincoln Hospital as a 36-year-old cardiac arrest victim and her family met the Phoenix Firefighters who saved her life.

She was talking to her neighbor in her front yard, but one minute later Jana Schloesser was on the ground, suffering from cardiac arrest.

“Our family has been through a lot, and it’s a blessing to have my wife – and my kids’ mother – here today,” Jana’s husband Rory, who survived a bout with cancer just one year before, said.

Rory went on to thank the firefighters who saved his wife.

“These guys are real heroes, this is what people should be made of,” he said.

Jana’s daughter Katie was also grateful for the chance to thank those who helped her mother.

“I’m so glad to have this opportunity today to say thank you, thank you so much for what you’ve done for my mom and what you did for us,” she said.

The firefighters were presented with an award at the hospital

EFR Asia courses encompass:

• EFR Primary Care (CPR) Course
• EFR Secondary Care (First Aid) Course
• EFR Care for Children Course
• Refresher Course
• EFR Automated External Defibrillation (AED) Course
• EFR Instructor Course

Officers were called about 1:35 p.m. to a home near 1850 North and 300 West on a report of a child slumped over her toy box and not breathing, Centerville Police Lt. Paul Child said.

The first officer to arrive began CPR and asked dispatchers to send a medical helicopter to the scene. Crews were still performing CPR on the child when they flew her to Primary Children’s Medical Center in critical condition.

Child said there is no indication of foul play; however, police are investigating the incident. Police said the child has a history of passing out, and doctors were never able to determine why.

“At this point, we don’t know what the mechanism was that caused her to go into full arrest,” he said. “We’re still trying to determine that.”

— Geoff Liesik

EFR Asia courses encompass:

• EFR Primary Care (CPR) Course
• EFR Secondary Care (First Aid) Course
• EFR Care for Children Course
• Refresher Course
• EFR Automated External Defibrillation (AED) Course
• EFR Instructor Course

A young North Carolina mother is alive today because her husband received Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation(CPR) training from the American Red Cross.

Charlotte resident Amy Jones shares her story about how CPR helped saved her life when she went into sudden cardiac arrest.

 “Sept. 7, 2009, was the day my life changed forever,” said the 37-year-old mother.   ‘We were at home in Charlotte patiently awaiting our ‘Labor Day.’  Nine months pregnant, I was just two days shy of my due date. I was sleeping on the couch, with my husband, Arnie, nearby.   

“Suddenly, I stopped breathing and had no pulse.  Arnie placed me on the floor, called 911, and started CPR. The paramedics arrived very quickly and took over. I was shocked with a defibrillator two times without any success. The third or fourth time, they got a pulse – a weak one, but it was there.

“The paramedics had to revive me twice in transport, and again a weak pulse appeared. Once I was stabilized at the hospital, they performed a Caesarean section and the baby arrived healthy at 8 pounds 12 ounces.  I was admitted into the intensive care unit and placed in a medically induced coma for several days.

“When I regained consciousness, doctors implanted an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) to help regulate my heart rate and shock me in case I went into sudden cardiac arrest again.  Ten days later, my daughter, Elizabeth, and I went home.

“I am doing really well, thanks in part to my husband’s quick actions. I have very minor memory loss, and my heart is strong with no permanent damage.  CPR saved my life.  If Arnie had not known how to perform CPR, I would not be here today to tell my story.”

EFR Asia courses encompass:

• EFR Primary Care (CPR) Course
• EFR Secondary Care (First Aid) Course
• EFR Care for Children Course
• Refresher Course
• EFR Automated External Defibrillation (AED) Course
• EFR Instructor Course

Tran was in the 36th Street N/R subway stationat Fourth Avenue and reviewing for an exam with headphones on while waiting for her train when she heard a loud noise and headed towards the commotion. “I saw a crowd of people and two feet sticking out from behind a pole,” she recalled. “A train conductor who had witnessed the incident yelled, ‘Does anyone know CPR?’ At that very moment, I went into automatic mode and yelled back, ‘I do! I know CPR!’ and at the same time, I yelled for the conductor to call 911 immediately.”

The Mock Code program was designed by Irene Rempel, RN, while doing her clinical experience as a graduate student at Pace University’s Leinhard School of Nursing under the supervision of PBISN Dean Janet Mackin, RN, EdD, who was her preceptor.

The Mock Code is practiced in the school’s Skills Lab, overseen by coordinator Tina Heinz, RN, an expert in critical care. Thirteen student nurses were in Tran’s group.

That fortuitous Saturday morning, Tran’s Mock Code lab skills were to be tested for real. As soon as she reached the unconscious man, she took his pulse with one hand and shook him with the other but got no response. Initial measures failing, she asked the train operator to assist in opening up his clothing.

Tran continued to monitor his respiration and pulse until EMS arrived a few minutes later. She immediately reported the events and interventions that she used and his vitals from beginning to end. She stayed with them a few more minutes to answer questions, then picked up her bag and papers off the ground, and proceeded on her way to work.

For the rest of the day, she had an adrenaline high. “I walked away with a great feeling. I realized that all through the entire incident I felt calm and cool as a cucumber. I realized how all that education and training has paid off,” she said.

EFR Asia courses encompass:

• EFR Primary Care (CPR) Course
• EFR Secondary Care (First Aid) Course
• EFR Care for Children Course
• Refresher Course
• EFR Automated External Defibrillation (AED) Course
• EFR Instructor Course

The researchers, who published their findings in The Lancet, hope it would encourage more people to save lives by giving chest compression — which is easier to teach, learn and remember than conventional cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR), which includes both chest compression and rescue breathing. 

“If a bystander has learned chest-compression-only CPR … the bystander should be encouraged to provide compression-only CPR rather than no bystander CPR,” wrote the researchers, who were led by Tetsuhisa Kitamura at the Kyoto University Health Service in Kyoto, Japan. 

While the American Heart Association recommends that bystanders give chest compression only to adults with cardiac arrests, there is no such recommendation for children as no study has been done in the past showing its benefits to children. 

However, Kitamura and his colleagues collected information on 5,170 children who suffered cardiac arrests outside hospitals in Japan over three years from 2005 to 2007. 

This first ever large study on children found that youngsters who were given any kind of CPR (whether chest compression alone, or chest compression together with rescue breathing) were three times more likely to end up with a favourable outcome compared to children who received no help at all. 

“Our study is sufficiently large to identify the important beneficial effect of bystander CPR on survival outcomes after paediatric cardiac arrest,” they said. 

“Our data lead us to lend support to a double CPR training strategy: compression-only CPR training for most people to increase bystander CPR by bystanders, and conventional CPR (chest compression plus rescue breathing) training for individuals who are most likely to witness children who have cardiac arrests with non-cardiac causes, such as medical professionals, lifeguards, school teachers, families with children, and families with swimming pools.” (Reporting by Tan Ee Lyn; Editing by Bill Tarrant)

EFR Asia courses encompass:

• EFR Primary Care (CPR) Course
• EFR Secondary Care (First Aid) Course
• EFR Care for Children Course
• Refresher Course
• EFR Automated External Defibrillation (AED) Course
• EFR Instructor Course

The survival rate for people who have sudden cardiac arrest incidents outside of a hospital is only 8%.  That shockingly low statistic isn’t just something that affects the elderly – heart attacks are a leading cause of death in women under the age of 55, and young women who suffer heart attacks are nearly twice as likely to suffer long term damage or die than male victims.  This is partially due to the fact that women, and their doctors, frequently don’t recognize the symptoms, which are different in women than they are in men.  Women who are suffering a heart attack are likely to experience back pain, indigestion and nausea and or vomiting rather than actual chest pain.

Kaitlin Forbes was hardly even a woman when she had her sudden cardiac arrest.  At age 15 Kaitlin was an active, athletic high school student who competed in three varsity sports at Rhinebeck High School in Rhinebeck, New York.  ”I was 15, the only things I thought about were sports, and boys, and my friends. Death was the last thing that crossed my mind,” says Kaitlin.

Then Kaitlin collapsed on the playing field – walking pneumonia, coupled with an undiagnosed case of myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle), having caused her heart to stop without any warning what so ever.  Lucky for Kaitlin, her school had installed an Automated External Defibrillator system only two months before and trained the faculty how to use it.  That, in combination with her coach’s quick thinking and CPR training, saved Kaitlin’s life.

“I never even thought about the AED, but now I see signs for them everywhere. I guess you wouldn’t know about them until you’re affected by them.” Kaitlin says.  Kaitlin, now 20, has a pacemaker and is continuing her life at a fairly normal pace.  She and the mother of a teammate who was not so lucky and passed away in 2006 due to a similar condition have started a the Heart Safe Club in their hometown.  Kaitlin also serves as a Heart Ambassador for the American Heart Associations‘ Be the Beat campaign, which works to train young people to deal with cardiac arrest.  CPR and defibrillation training is vital for parents, teachers and teens themselves – moments can mean the difference between life and death.

EFR Asia courses encompass:

• EFR Primary Care (CPR) Course
• EFR Secondary Care (First Aid) Course
• EFR Care for Children Course
• Refresher Course
• EFR Automated External Defibrillation (AED) Course
• EFR Instructor Course