By John Branton
The Columbian
VANCOUVER, Wa. — An 81-year-old man was standing in the bleachers at McKenzie Stadium on Tuesday afternoon, with a crowd of about 1,000 people gathered to watch a track meet, when he suddenly collapsed.
As the man fell and rolled down a row or two, he hit his head on a seat.
The elderly man had suffered full cardiac arrest, wasn’t breathing, had no pulse and was unconscious — basically dead. But his luck hadn’t completely run out.
Standing next to him, wearing street clothes for the meet, was Kyle Kirby, a nine-year veteran with the Vancouver Fire Department.
Kirby, trained in cardio-pulmonary resuscitation, started performing it on the man only seconds after he fell. About 4:10 p.m. Tuesday, Kirby told someone to call 911 and began the strenuous job of chest compressions.
As Kirby worked, members of the crowd watched — and there was a second streak of luck.
Capt. Tony Fletcher, a 13-year-veteran with the fire department and a CPR instructor, made it through the crowd to help. As Kirby did the compressions, Fletcher performed the head-tilt chin-lift on the man and made sure his airway was clear.
Minutes later, the elderly man started breathing a little, so more rescue breaths weren’t needed. So Kirby and Fletcher took turns continuing the chest compressions.
“The minute they stopped CPR to check for pulses, he would stop breathing,” said Jim Flaherty, firefighter-spokesman.
With the man’s heart not pumping, the chest compressions were the only thing that was circulating blood to the man’s brain and other organs, Flaherty said.
Fighting traffic
Meanwhile, AMR Northwest ambulance paramedics arrived at the stadium near Evergreen High School at 14300 N.E. 18th St., but traffic there, including buses filled with track-meet contestants, made it slow going.
But Fletcher, who had gone down to meet them, told them what was happening. Fletcher told them to bring a lift tarp, with handles on its sides, to carry the stricken man down to the ambulance.
Char Thierfielder, the lead AMR paramedic, and paramedic Remington Becker and intern Thomas Drake put the man in the back of the ambulance.
Setting up a heart monitor, as Fletcher and others continued the chest compressions, they learned the man’s heart was fibrillating, basically quivering, and not pumping his blood, Flaherty said. Vancouver Fire Department firefighter-paramedic Perry LeDoux arrived to help.
As the ambulance rushed to Southwest Washington Medical Center with lights flashing and siren blaring, the rescuers used a defibrillator to shock the man three times to get his heart beating. They also gave him lifesaving drugs through an IV line.
The emergency treatment worked. The man started breathing on his own, and paramedics detected a steady pulse, Flaherty said. And he regained awareness and began following directions.
“By the time they got to (the medical center), the gentleman was speaking with them,” Flaherty said.
Federal medical-privacy laws prevent Flaherty from giving the elderly man’s name and prevent hospital staff from releasing his medical condition. However, an official said he was alive at The Columbian’s press time.
The timeline was this, Flaherty said: Called at 4:10 p.m., as Kirby was performing CPR at the track meet, the ambulance arrived in about four minutes, and Engine 10 arrived four minutes after that.
The rescuers delivered the man to the hospital at 4:36 p.m., which means they worked on him 26 minutes, keeping him alive, before arriving at the hospital.
Training recommended
If there was ever a rescue that showed the importance of CPR, this was it, Flaherty said. In this case, a trained person standing next to the man started CPR only seconds after his heart stopped, and rescuers continued the care nonstop.
“Without the CPR, we most likely would have had a different outcome,” Flaherty said. “The stars lined up for this fellow, at least to get him to the hospital and give him the best chance.”
Everyone should learn CPR in case of such a situation, Flaherty said.
One way to start looking for classes is to call the Northwest Regional Training Center at 360-397-2100. The American Heart Association and local Red Cross chapters also can help, and some fire departments offer the classes.
Republished with permission from The Columbian