Court Officers Save Ailing Lawyer

By Shirley E. Perlman

STAFF WRITER

April 18, 2003

The quick action of three court officers apparently saved the life of a Lake Success lawyer who collapsed yesterday morning in State Supreme Court in Mineola.

The lawyer, Michael Dikman, 66, was walking down the corridor at the Marital Center on 400 County Seat Dr. when he suddenly fell to the ground. Jacqueline Mahon, one of the court officers who responded, heard the thump.

"Then someone yelled out that a man fainted," she said. Mahon and two other court officers, Randall Meierdierks and Capt. Neil Schloth, used a portable defibrillator to revive him.

"The court officers in Nassau Supreme Court saved my father's life today," said his son, David Dikman, 41, also a lawyer, from Rockville Centre. "If they weren't there and if they didn't have the device or didn't think to use it or if they waited for EMS ... well he either would have died ... [or] the situation would be far more grave than it appears to be at this time."

Initially, Dikman regained consciousness on his own. "He was lying on the ground and he started coming around," Schloth said. "He said he had an internal defibrillator and that it had shocked him. He said it happened before. We thought it was no big deal."

But as Meierdierks attempted to take Dikman's pulse and blood pressure he lost consciousness again. Schloth said the internal defibrillator shocked Dikman four or five times, but that he didn't respond.

"We realized we were losing him," Schloth said. They attached a portable defibrillator. "We shocked him once and he came around right away."

Dikman was taken to the emergency room of Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola, where he underwent tests yesterday, his son said.

Dikman was in the intensive care unit late yesterday afternoon.

Daniel Bagnuola, a spokesman for Nassau courts, said that all of Nassau's court buildings are equipped with defibrillators and that the three officers are trained emergency medical technicians.

David Dikman said it was unclear why the internal defibrillator failed to revive his father. "The device worked, but it didn't have the intended result," he said. "What saved him was that external shock that he got."

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

School Nurse, Defibrillator Helps Save Teacher's Life

Man Says He Was In Right Place At Right Time

March 25, 2003

DEDHAM, Mass. -- A substitute teacher at Dedham High School suffered cardiac arrest last week as he prepared to begin a tutoring session.

NewsCenter 5's Heather Unruh reported that it was an ordinary day at Dedham High that became extraordinary, when substitute teacher Joe Grasso suffered cardiac arrest. Nurse Gail Kelley found him on his side.

"(He was) clearly not breathing. We rolled him over and he had no pulse," Kelley said.

Kelley started CPR while the principal grabbed the school's new portable defibrillator. Within minutes, she had shocked his heart back to normal rhythm.

"By the time he left here, his coloring was back, he was answering questions," Kelley said.

"I passed out and then I woke up. I don't remember anything else," Grasso said.

Grasso, 52, may not remember Kelley's heroics, but he knows he nearly suffered the same fate as his brother who died of a heart attack last month.

"If it happened at home, if it happened on the way to school, if it happened at another school -- I might not be here now," Grasso said. "I was at the right place at the right time."

Doctors said that defibrillators are safe and easy to use. You attach electrodes, and the machine tells you if a shock is needed.

"There is no question that this saved Mr. Grasso's life. If he had been in a situation where it was not available in a timely fashion as it was at Dedham High School, we wouldn't be celebrating his health -- we'd be memorializing his life," Brigham and Women's Hospital Dr. Charles Pozner said.

"It felt good putting it on the wall, but you hope you never have to use it. And yet we used it. It did absolutely exactly what it was supposed to do, and it saved his life," Kelley said.

Copyright 2003 by TheBostonChannel.

FDA Okays Defibrillator System for Pediatric Use

By Ori Twersky

WASHINGTON (Reuters Health) Jan 28 - Cardiac Science Inc. said on Tuesday that it has received a supplemental clearance from the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to market its pediatric defibrillation electrode pad system for its Powerheart AED (automatic emergency defibrillator), permitting the system to be used on children under eight years old.

The pediatric electrode pads are significantly smaller than the standard pads, to better fit the bodies of children. The pediatric system also is designed to decrease the energy delivered during a defibrillation shock.

"The school market is expanding rapidly in both the US and UK and we anticipate additional legislation, similar to New York State, which will continue to drive adoption of automatic external defibrillators in schools," said Cardiac Science CEO Raymond W. Cohen.

Cohen added that the new pad system would retail for about $90 and that shipments would begin immediately.

Citing a study conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), the medical device maker estimated that about 23,320 children and young adults in the US died of cardiac arrest between 1989 and 1996.

A young life saved by a school defibrillator

Staff rescues 16-year-old at Orange-Ulster BOCES

January 15, 2003

NYSUT staffers learn how to use automated defibrillators such as the one at far right.

If it weren't for a new state law requiring portable defibrillators at schools - and quick action by Orange-Ulster BOCES staff - a 16-year-old student who suddenly collapsed in class Dec. 16 probably would have died, medical personnel said.

The young woman had no history of heart problems and recently had a physical by her family physician, said Patricia Simmons, assistant director at the Career and Technical Education Center at Orange-Ulster BOCES in Goshen.

According to emergency reports, the student was in the classroom at about 2:35 p.m. when she turned to a fellow student and said, "I need to sit down." She collapsed and began having seizures. Staffers reported her pulse was weak, she was barely breathing and turning blue.

School nurse Sandra Montest-Hoff arrived quickly and administered CPR, with help from teacher Thomas Kavanah and a student who is a volunteer fireman. When it became clear the teen-ager was in cardiac arrest, a student ran for one of the school's Automated External Defibrillators purchased over the summer. Law enforcement instructors Don Weber and Bob Decker, both trained in using the AED, arrived immediately and attached the pads to the young student so the machine could analyze her condition. With audible instructions, the AED quickly indicated that a shock should be administered.

"The machine told us exactly what to do," Decker recalled. "After the first shock, it told us to continue CPR. After a short period of time, the AED advised us to shock her again." They continued chest compressions and then emergency personnel arrived. EMTs administered oxygen and the AED indicated a third shock should be administered. "After the third shock, she started breathing and the machine detected a faint pulse," Decker said. "The EMTs told us if we had not had that machine, she would not have survived."

The staff's heroic work was kept quiet when the young girl slipped into a coma and had trouble being stablized. After doctors inserted an internal AED, she came around and was discharged from the hospital in early January.

Shining example

"I always knew how wonderful the staff was, but this was such a shining example," Simmons said, noting the board would honor the staff at an upcoming meeting. "It's also an example of how important it is to be proactive. We never would have purchased these AEDs if it hadn't been for the new law. And looking back now, I can't tell you how glad I am that we jumped right on this even before the Dec. 1 (implementation date)."

The teachers involved, members of the Orange BOCES Teachers Association, said they volunteered for training in October - never realizing they would need to use it so soon.

NYC tragedy

Meanwhile, the news was different in New York City, where two students died in schools where there were no defibrillators.

In December, New York City and the state's four other big-city districts requested a reprieve from the new law, saying they needed time to secure funding. The request was rejected by the State Education Department, but there is no penalty for noncompliance.

On Jan. 6, a 19-year-old student died after he collapsed playing basketball at Harry S. Truman High in the Bronx. The next day, a 16-year-old girl died at a public school for disabled students in Staten Island. While it's unclear whether a defibrillator would have saved either student, New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg responded by ordering defibrillators to be placed in city schools as soon as possible.

Rachel Moyer, a teacher-activist who worked with New York State United Teachers for the law's passage, is working with New York City school officials to secure donated AEDs. Moyer, a special ed teacher in Port Jervis, began her crusade after losing her 10th-grade son in December 2000 when he collapsed and died during a basketball game at a rural high school where there was no AED.

The Orange County incident was the second time a school's defibrillator has saved a life since the AED law was enacted. In mid-November, just before the kickoff of a football game on Long Island, Locust Valley athletic trainer Whittney Smith used an AED to restart the heart of a 62-year-old spectator who collapsed in the stands.

"We knew this law would save many lives," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. "Hopefully these latest incidents will convince more school districts to obey the law."

More information about the defibrillator law is available on the NYSUT Web site, www.nysut.org, including an informational bulletin and a link to the State Education Department Web page on AEDs.

More info is also available at the official web site of the Gregory W. Moyer Defibrillator Fund, www.gregaed.org.

- Sylvia Saunders

NYSUT.org. Copyright New York State United Teachers. 800 Troy-Schenectady Road, Latham, New York, 12110-2455. 518.213.6000. http://www.nysut.org.

Defibrillator saves Somers man in a supermarket

Tuesday January 07, 2003

(Mahopac, New York-AP) -- A Somers man was saved by a police officer using a defibrillator after the man collapsed in a supermarket and stopped breathing.

Carmel Police Officer Ernie Iarussi has been on the town police force for just two years. He says he's practiced using the defibrillator, but yesterday morning was the first time he had to use it for real.

Officer Iarussi was called to the A-and-P Sav-A-Center on Route Six in Mahopac at 11:30 a-m for a man who collapsed. Iarussi says the man was not breathing and had no pulse.

An off-duty Stamford firefighter - Michael Repp - helped begin C-P-R. Iarussi got his defibrillator and gave the victim one jolt, which started his heart again.

Ambulance workers arrived shortly after and took 75-year-old Robert O'Connor ot Somers to the Putnam Hospital Center.

He's listed in critical but stable condition this morning.

(Copyright 2003 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

A Defibrillator For Your Home Medicine Chest

By Debbe Geiger

Debbe Geiger is a freelance writer.

December 3, 2002

Defibrillators, the machines that jump-start hearts stopped by a deadly electrical malfunction known as cardiac arrest, could one day become as common in the home as fire extinguishers, now that the FDA has approved the sale of the first at-home automatic external defibrillator (AED).

The HeartStart Defibrillator, manufactured by Philips Medical Systems, will be available starting early next year. Philips is marketing its AED to people over the age of 45, especially if they are at risk for heart attack.

According to the American Heart Association, sudden cardiac arrest is one of the leading causes of death in the United States, claiming more than 250,000 lives each year. More than 70 percent of cardiac arrests occur in the home, and the majority are witnessed by someone who could potentially be a lifesaver.

"We know that if someone collapses of cardiac arrest and someone is able to defibrillate them within a minute or so, almost everybody survives," says Dr. W. Douglas Weaver, chief of cardiology at Henry Ford Hospital in Detroit. These devices, he says, "could have a significant impact as long as people recognize when someone has cardiac arrest and takes action."

Questions remain about how people will react in life-threatening situations. A recent New England Journal of Medicine article on defibrillator use at Chicago's O'Hare airport proved that untrained Good Samaritans can and will save people's lives when faced with sudden cardiac arrest. The study suggested "that people will take action, and the amount of training that is required is somewhat less than what was thought in the past," says Weaver. "People can use these devices even though they weren't part of the emergency response team."

Even so, he says, "the experience we have in the home situation is quite limited. Although I think the downside for having these in the home is almost zero, there are some unanswered questions, like will people use them in the moment of urgency?" Will these devices "be used when they should be used, and will people be effective at resuscitating these victims of sudden death? I don't think we know that for sure."

To determine how effective defibrillators will be in the home, the National Institutes of Health is beginning a four-year international study of 7,000 people at risk for heart attack. The randomized trial will put defibrillators in some of the patients' homes and train family members in their use. "In the past, the approach was simply call 911 and do CPR and wait for the paramedics to arrive," said Dr. Marcel Salive, a project officer for the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute in Bethesda, Md. "This allows the defibrillation to occur earlier. We really don't know how many of these people could be saved. That's the reason for doing the study."

The American Heart Association is hoping for answers to the same questions before it gives the at-home defibrillator its nod of approval. "We believe that early defibrillation saves lives," stressed Dr. Vinay Nadkarni, chairman of the emergency cardiovascular care committee of the American Heart Association in Dallas. "What we don't know is whether putting an automated external defibrillator in the home can actually accomplish the goal of early defibrillation." While the device requires a physician's prescription, special training is not mandated, and that concerns the heart association, Nadkarni says. "We'd like to see the sale of the AED tightly contingent upon training in early recognition of an emergency, CPR and AED use. That is the triumvirate of intervention for cardiac arrest."

According to David Freeman, vice president of cardiology marketing at Philips, a tug on the pull handle activates a clear voice that calmly directs the user through each step of the defibrillation process. It also prompts him or her to call for emergency help and provides CPR coaching. Freeman says the device is so sophisticated that it can sense the user's actions and automatically adjust the pace of its verbal instructions. When not in use, the defibrillator does daily checks on all its systems, including the batteries and pads' readiness. It chirps like a smoke detector in need of batteries to alert family members when a part needs attention.

"I think it's great," says Dr. Todd Cohen, director of electrophysiology at Winthrop-University Hospital in Mineola. "They're idiot-proof. I'm a big believer in getting these things closer to patients because they can save lives."

Cohen says CPR can keep the circulation going, but it cannot correct the abnormal heart rhythm called ventricular fibrillation, which is most often associated with cardiac arrest. Prompt defibrillation is recognized as the definitive treatment. For every minute that goes by without defibrillation, a victim's chance of survival decreases by about 10 percent. After 10 minutes without defibrillation, few attempts at resuscitation are successful. The average response time for emergency medical services in a typical community is nine minutes.

The HeartStart's suggested retail price is $2,295, and it is not covered by most insurance policies. It can be ordered by calling 866-333-4246, by visiting www.heartstarthome. com, or at select CVS stores.

Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.

Device Pays Off Again Defibrillator helps save life of Brightwaters man at ballgame

By Erik Holm

STAFF WRITER

November 18, 2002

When his doctor walked into the emergency room a few hours after John Tierney's heart stopped on Saturday night, he took one look at his patient and pronounced him blessed.

"You're a very lucky man,” the doctor said.

Tierney, who suffered the heart attack in the stands moments before the kickoff of a high school playoff game between Locust Valley and Seaford, was revived by a defibrillator that had been on the sidelines.

The heart-starting device was there, in part, because of the efforts of one Northport couple, who believe a defibrillator could have saved their 14-year-old son, Louis Acompora, who died after being struck on the chest while playing lacrosse in 2000.

Defibrillators will be required at every high school sporting event in New York State beginning Dec. 1, thanks to a new state law the Acomporas had pushed for. But the Locust Valley school district and parents' groups had purchased their district's defibrillators more than two years ago, not long after Louis Acompora's death.

When he heard about Tierney late Saturday night, Louis' father, John Acompora, said he "got goose bumps.”

"It's extremely gratifying. This is exactly the sort of thing we've been telling people,” he said yesterday. "The people who could be saved by this are teachers, janitors, parents, anyone at the event.”

Tierney, 61, an attorney from Brightwaters, was listed in critical but stable condition yesterday. But family members said that he is well on the way to recovery and would likely be moved out of the critical care unit today.

Tierney had lived with an irregular heartbeat for years without incident and had stents put in his heart in the past year as a preventive measure.

Between cracking jokes about his health and his luck yesterday, said his wife, Cecilia Tierney, Tierney was expressing amazement over the trainer, the doctors and the firefighter who happened to be on the sidelines at Hofstra University's stadium, where the playoff game was being held.

He was amazed, too, that there was a defibrillator on hand, thanks to the efforts of Locust Valley school administrators, boosters and the Acomporas.

"Good things come from tragedy sometimes,” Cecilia Tierney said. "He just can't believe there are so many good people in the world . . .”

Tierney is not the first on Long Island to be saved because of the efforts by the Acomporas to make defibrillators more widely available.

Among those who have been helped is Muhammad Shah of Nesconset, 15, a student at Smithtown High School, revived in December with a defibrillator purchased by school officials.

James Hanrahan of St. James was on the third hole at St. George's Golf and County Club in Stony Brook in September 2001 when he had a heart attack. Club officials had heard of the Acomporas' efforts and completed their training on their newly purchased defibrillators just two weeks before. They shocked him three times before restoring a normal heartbeat. Hanrahan said yesterday that he has played roughly 140 rounds of golf since.

About the Acomporas, Hanrahan said: "Without them, I wouldn't be here. They have done an incredible job in a small amount of time. They are wonderful people.”

Copyright © 2002, Newsday, Inc.