By Christine Wallgren
Boston Globe
Copyright 2007 The Boston Globe
BRIDGEWATER, Mass. — To see 2-year-old Amin Abbassi pedaling around the driveway of his Bridgewater home, it is hard to believe that two weeks ago he was, for all practical purposes, dead.
“He had no pulse or lung sounds,” said firefighter and paramedic David McGillis, one of five who rushed to the home after the toddler was pulled from the family pool, into which he had fallen. It is believed that Amin had been under water for five minutes and by medical standards, McGillis said, had expired.
It’s hard to know exactly how much of the boy’s surprising recovery is due to the use of a specialized medical tool recently donated to the Bridgewater Fire Deparment. But all seem to agree that having the so-called IO drill, used that day for the first time, was a major factor in saving the child’s life.
The new technology allows medical workers to insert a needle directly into bone marrow to quickly administer fluids.
The power drills are just making it into fire departments south of Boston, according to Marshfield Fire Chief Kevin Robinson, president of the Plymouth County Fire Chiefs’ Association. Dr. Michael Murphy, South Shore Hospital’s medical director for paramedics, has been promoting them, he said.
“Marshfield doesn’t have them yet, for budget reasons, but Hull, Cohasset, Scituate, Hingham, and Hanover do,” Robinson said. Most that have the drills have acquired them only in the past six months or so, he said.
In this case, Bridgewater is cutting edge, agreed Ware Fire Chief Thomas Coulombe, a vice president of the Massachusetts Fire Chiefs’ Association. “In Western Massachusetts, there are five or six departments that have bought them,” Coulombe said. Ware bought two drills a few weeks ago and has just begun training.
Amin’s recovery is an argument for investing the time and money.
“Everything is back to normal,” says his relieved father, Rafik Abbassi, last week as he kept a close eye on his young sons in the driveway of the Stephanie Lane home where the family moved just two months ago.
Amin shows no ill effect from his brush with death, he says, and is as active as ever.
The episode remains, however, very much on the minds of the veteran paramedics who treated him.
McGillis, who has worked for the Bridgewater Fire Department for the past four years, said he had never had to respond to a “Pediatric Code,” or child whose heart and lungs have ceased to function, until two weeks ago, when the call about Amin came in. He had dreaded the moment.
As McGillis and his four co-workers pulled up in front of the house and leaped from the ambulance, a police officer approached with little Amin’s lifeless body in his arms. He had been pulled from the pool by his father, and a neighbor, 24-year-old Kathleen Greene, a medical assistant, had tried to resuscitate him. The boy, just a few days shy of his second birthday, was not breathing, and was blue from lack of oxygen.
In the back of the ambulance, each of the five paramedics began working on Amin. The toddler’s airways were cleared and he was hooked to a cardiac monitor while a paramedic continued to administer cardio-pulmonary resuscitation.
Paramedic Tim Donovan made the split-second decision to use the Fire Department’s new EZ-IO [intraosseous] battery-powered drill to quickly bore a tiny hole into the bone marrow in Amin’s tibia. A port for an intravenous line was connected, rushing much-needed fluids through the child’s system.
“I saw his chest start to rise and fall, and God, was I happy,” McGillis said.
The intravenous port also provided paramedics, on the med-flight to Children’s Hospital in Boston, with a way to continue to administer sedatives and other medicines.
“It aided in saving his life,” said McGillis.
McGillis and his family played a major role in getting this piece of advanced equipment for his department six months ago. Two IO drills — one for each ambulance — as well as a training drill were donated to the Fire Department in the spring, paid for with $5,000 from the Jay McGillis Foundation. Jay, David’s brother, died in 1992 of leukemia, while a student at Boston College.
Emergency medical workers have historically used a manual drill to insert an intravenous line into the bone marrow, when veins have collapsed or, as in the case of young patients, are too hard to find. But a child’s delicate bone, or the brittle bone of an elderly patient, were in danger of shattering with the manual drill, he said — thus, the need to move to the more sophisticated and effective IO drill.
In responding to Amin, “Normally, we would have tried to put in a regular IV first,” said paramedic Jeff Germaine, another member of the team. “Time was the deciding factor for this kid, and the [IO] drill saved us minutes. We were able to quickly administer fluids and meds.”
Amin spent three days in the intensive care unit at Children’s Hospital, and returned home just in time to celebrate his birthday on Sept. 28.
Still tied to a railing outside the Abbassi’ door last week were “Get Well” balloons from well-wishers.
Rafik Abbassi said everyone, from firefighters to his neighbors, has been welcoming and supportive since his son’s brush with death.
“We love it here,” he said, “more and more.”