Pioneer Press Newspapers
BARRINGTON, Ill. — “I noticed my dad was turning purple, a dark purple in his face and down his neck,” recalled 16-year-old Brendan Gould.
Moments before on Feb. 6, Tom Gould keeled over in Brendan’s bedroom in Barrington, struck with cardiac arrest.
“I called 911 and the dispatcher talked me through giving my father CPR. His instructions were very clear,” said Brendan, a sophomore at Barrington High School. “I knew what I had to do because it very serious.”
The dispatcher was Jeff Callaghan of CenCom 911 in Round Lake Beach. Unaware at first he was talking to a teenager, Callaghan guided Brendan through CPR, while referring himself to medical cards for instructions and questions to ask.
“The cards tell us what to do before an ambulance gets on scene. You look for signs, such as skin color and other vital signs,” said Callaghan, a dispatcher since 2007.
He also is a trainer in emergency medical dispatch and has received 32 hours of initial training, he said.
“I thought I was talking to an adult. He was not frantic at all. We don’t get adults talking like he was. He was amazing, no panicking,” Callaghan said.
Barrington Police and Fire departments soon arrived and through more CPR and defibrillation, Tom Gould’s heart showed activity.
“We get calls like this three or four times a month. We don’t really know the outcomes, but we fall back on our training,” Callaghan said.
Gould, 56, was taken to the cardiac catheterization lab at Advocate Good Shepherd Hospital in Barrington, where no heart blockages were found, said the hospital’s manager of public affairs and marketing, Liz Donofrio.
Dr. Hetal Gandhi and other critical care teams used a therapeutic hypothermia protocol, Donofrio said.
Gandhi said the treatment helps protect brain cells and organs through cooling and rewarming one’s body temperature.
After 11 days at the hospital, where he received a pacemaker, Gould went home with no residual heart problems, Donofrio said.
Gould said he now has a monitor is in his home that receives data from his pacemaker that is sent to his cardiologist for review.
Gandhi believed everyone should learn hands-on CPR and that, outside of hospitals, about 350,000 people die a year due to cardiac arrests.
Gould recalled nothing about collapsing that night at 5:30 p.m.
“Three hours earlier, I had coached my daughter Grace’s basketball game. That was the last thing I remember,” he said. “The Barrington Fire Department did a great job.”
Gould said he has had an irregular heart beat for several years, and that he was on beta blockers for many years.
“I listened to the 911 call. My son was calm as can be. It’s eerie listening to it, though,” Gould said. “The 911 dispatcher did a fine job, too.”
“I’m certainly more calm now and more appreciative of everyday,” he said.
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