By Michael Russell
oregonlive.com
PORTLAND, Ore. — A Portland couple who jumped to aid a man having a medical emergency at Bruce Springsteen’s Moda Center concert Friday might have been the two people best positioned to help, despite what they describe as a “chaotic” situation.
Joshua Roark, a cardiologist at Adventist Health’s Northwest Heart Center, and his wife, Jennifer Roark, a former nurse practitioner with nearly 20 years of experience, were sitting directly behind the man in near the middle of section 209 when he slumped over in his seat.
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“I saw him lean over, and the guy he was with was like, ‘Hey, are you OK? Are you OK?,’” Joshua Roark said.
The Roarks asked if the man was breathing, then checked for a pulse. Neither could feel one.
“‘Ok, this guy’s dead,’” Jennifer Roark remembers thinking. “’We have to do something.’”
Joshua Roark began performing chest compressions while the man was still seated, then the Roarks maneuvered him to the floor with the help of people nearby. They continued CPR while asking bystanders to call for help.
“It was probably the worst of all places to have a medical emergency,” Jennifer Roark said. “It was loud. It was dark. It’s a very small space.”
A spokesperson with the Portland Police Bureau said the man was taken to an area hospital but did not confirm whether the man had died. Portland Fire & Rescue directed questions to the Multnomah County Medical Examiner’s Office and to the Moda Center. Neither responded to calls and emails Saturday or Sunday.
Help arrives
Several minutes after the man collapsed, a Moda Center employee arrived with an automated external defibrillator, the Roarks said. But given the tight quarters, getting the device properly situated on the man’s chest presented a further challenge.
“When you’re in a code situation, usually someone is in charge,” Jennifer Roark said, referring to the response protocol when a patient is in life-threatening distress. Her husband was trying to be that person, she said, but “because it was so loud, and there were so many people trying to do different tasks, it felt so chaotic.”
Springsteen and his E Street band apparently did not notice the commotion in the section behind the stage. The house lights stayed down and the band played on.
A Portland police officer arrived and helped Jennifer Roark with CPR, Joshua Roark said. Given the circumstances, it was impossible to keep track of time, but fans sitting nearby said the Roarks and others conducted chest compressions for about 15 minutes.
“When you learn CPR, they teach you to pump the chest to ‘Staying Alive’ by the Bee Gees,” Joshua Roark said. “I don’t know if Bruce’s tempo is the same. I totally zoned out to all the songs.”
Eventually, emergency medical technicians arrived with a backboard, but the space between the seats was too tight to lift the man, so they had to slide him on the floor to the stairs, the Roarks said. The couple accompanied the man to the lobby, where Portland firefighters attached an automatic chest compression device.
The Roarks don’t know what became of the man, but Joshua Roark said it “was not a good sign” that he was without oxygen for so long or that he had “erratic electric activity” in his chest but no pulse.
Processing the experience
Eventually, the Roarks made their way back to their seats and caught the end of the show. On their way back, people thanked them for their quick thinking, they said.
“I actually was pretty blown away,” Jennifer Roark said. “A lady hugged me by the bathroom. I couldn’t believe that.”
Joshua Roark is familiar with the “weird emotional comedown” that sometimes follows an intense situation. Telling friends has been helpful to process, he said: “Not because we felt like heroes ourselves, but because of how crazy is it that something like this happened to us in the middle of a show, and we happened to be the very people that could help him.”
The Roarks agree that everyone at the Moda Center “did their best,” but think additional training would be useful should this situation happen again.
After a code situation, medical workers typically conduct a debrief, they said. That’s something Joshua Roark would like to do with the Moda Center staff, he said.
A surprise turned serious
As it happens, Jennifer Roark is only a modest fan of The Boss.
Joshua Roark had asked her to arrange a babysitter to watch their kids Friday, then surprised her with tickets he had purchased that afternoon.
Her first response?
“I don’t want to do that.”
But she went, and ended up having “the most insane experience I’ve ever had.”
Joshua Roark echoed the thoughts of many after hearing about Friday’s incident.
“I just hope the guy was a big Bruce Springsteen fan,” he said.
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