By Donna Frake
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
OCONOMOWOC, Wisc. — It was the stunning combination of professional training and parental instinct that allowed an Oconomowoc father to breathe life into his 16-year-old son.
The Red Cross recognized Steve Vogt recently with a surprise ceremony awarding him with the Certificate of Merit, the organization’s highest honor for his actions earlier this year that saved his son Tyler’s life from sudden cardiac arrest.
It started as most days do, with nothing out of the ordinary.
“I just got home from work and had a couple of 50-pound bags of potatoes. I took one, and Tyler had the other one,” Vogt recalled.
The healthy teenager and his father were making small talk as they walked into the house.
“I set my bag down, and his went flying. I thought he was fooling around, but he fell to the ground,” Vogt recalled.
For the last three years, about two or three times a month, Vogt gives CRP instruction through the Red Cross. Never could he have envisioned this scenario: Tyler was not breathing and had no purse.
While instructing his then 13-year-old daughter to call 911, Vogt began to administer CPR to his son.
He maintained an open airway, checked breathing and circulation and gave two breaths.
Waiting for emergency responders to arrive, he kept up the rate of 100 compressions per minute, then two breaths.
As a trained professional, Vogt tried not to focus on some difficult facts: each minute without a defibrillation by an automated external defibrillator (AED) reduces the chance of survival by 10 percent.
Later, he would find out that 95 percent of all victims of sudden cardiac arrest lose their life.
“Everything was automatic until the paramedics got there,” Vogt said.
He sent his other two children across the street to his parents’ home as emergency medical services workers did their job.
“They shocked him the first time, and there was nothing.
I kind of lost it then,” Vogt said. He had to leave the room.
“They got his heart back in rhythm the second time,” he said.
Vogt said he is indebted to the quick response of Oconomowoc emergency medical technicians.
“They were there within four minutes of the (911) call,” he said.
Tyler was transported to Oconomowoc Memorial Hospital where he had to be stabilized before being taken by Flight for Life to Children’s Hospital.
“He spent six days in the Intensive Care Unit at Children’s,” where it was discovered he has an electrical defect and issue with the heart muscle tissue, both of which are genetic, Vogt said.
Just over a week later, the then Oconomowoc High School sophomore was back in school with a new cardioverter defibrillator implanted in his chest. The device monitors his heart rhythm, controls any irregularities and can shock his heart if needed.
“He has had one episode since, and the device worked like it was supposed to. Last Monday he had an episode, and it shocked him into regular rhythm. They told us at Children’s he may never have another episode, or he may have multiple,” Vogt said.
Tyler has no memory of the initial episode, but said the one he experienced last week “felt like his heart exploded,” his father said.
Vogt said it is hard not to think of what might have happened had Tyler’s incident happened under different circumstances.
Suppose it had happened when he was home by himself, or up north at their cabin where there is no cell phone coverage? “Everything aligned that day,” Voigt told his colleagues at the Red Cross office.
Vogt said that he has used this personal experience in his classroom teaching.
“I try to get the point across that you never know when you will need it. It’s a pretty important skill. Obviously, it can save someone’s life. I recommend that everyone get trained,” he said.
Vogt said he was asked to teach a CPR class last week and when he arrived he found a room filled with about 30 people made up of family and friends.
“It was surreal. I was like, what are you doing here? I have a class to teach,” he said.
Despite the accolades and acknowledgement, Vogt knows the greatest reward is at home.
“I couldn’t ask for anything more. I have my son,” Vogt said.
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