'They brought me back from the dead!' Defibrillator law makes a difference

Kenmore school nurse Mary Rose Laux, left, and Kenmore police officer
David Stapleton used a defibrillator to revive parent Kristin Colucci,
who passed out in the school library during an open house event.
» view video

An 11-year-old West Canada Valley boy, a 37-year-old Kenmore mom and a 56-year-old Spackenkill retired teacher all share a heartfelt appreciation for a law that requires a defibrillator in every school building.

This year they were all saved by one - and a variety of well-trained guardian angels, including a custodian, a physical education teacher and a school nurse. These latest saves bring the total number of people revived by school defibrillators to 11 in the last year and a half, since the state Legislature passed a law fervently supported by New York State United Teachers.

On Jan. 22, Kenmore mom Kristin Colucci went into cardiac arrest while attending an evening storytelling event called "Bedtime Bonanza" with her two children, ages 3 and 6.

They were in the western New York library when Colucci suddenly collapsed. School nurse Mary Rose Laux, scheduled to read stories that night, rushed in to find Colucci on the floor and not breathing. She immediately performed CPR and called for the school's defibrillator. With help from a Kenmore police officer called to the emergency, Laux administered two shocks and got Colucci's heart beating again.

"I'm very thankful that the school had a defibrillator and someone who knew how to use it, Colucci said. "I later found out it was Mary Rose's birthday and she gave up going out for dinner to attend the storytelling night."

Colucci said the experience was especially traumatic because her husband died of a stroke just two years ago. He was 43. "If it can happen to me, it can happen to anyone," Colucci said. "I had no family history, no chest pains, not even high cholesterol."

In May, halfway across the state in West Canada Valley Elementary School,

11-year-old James McCooey was swimming laps in gym class when he went into cardiac arrest. Quick thinking by a handful of people including James' twin brother Jacob and the presence of the school defibrillator made the difference. Jacob and physical education teacher Steve Porter got James out of the pool and Barb Ellis, another phys ed teacher, began cardiopulmonary resuscitation. School nurse Millie Ritter came running with the defibrillator and applied it to James, who had no pulse and wasn't breathing. It revived him.

"It was the scariest situation I've ever been in and I wasn't even in the pool," said West Canada Valley TA President Michael Potter. "What's really scary is it could have happened the week before on a field trip to the Utica ballet and we wouldn't have had that device or trained personnel. Our next focus will be training more staff on how to use it. And I'd encourage any schools not complying with the law to get AEDs."

Within 24 hours of the West Canada incident, a defibrillator also proved life-saving at Spackenkill High in Dutchess County. Head custodian Ed Tannini happened to stop at the school around 7:30 p.m. after a last-minute trip with the girls' softball team. "I walked in and somebody yelled, 'Call 911,'" Tannini said. "I immediately went for the AED. When I got there, I saw a man on the floor who wasn't breathing."

It turned out to be retired teacher Steve Nash, who was attending a softball league umpires meeting. Tannini and another umpire at the meeting, retired Pine Plains phys ed teacher Bob Stevenson, administered the AED and performed two-man CPR. "After three times, he started breathing again on his own and then the paramedics came and took over," Tannini said. "I'm convinced the AED saved his life. I don't know if CPR alone would have done it."

"They brought me back from the dead," Nash said. "It's a little ironic. My mother died of a heart attack 20 years ago almost to the day. I wish there had been defibrillators around back then."

Nash said his doctors found the blockage that caused the heart attack and put in a stent. "I feel better now than I did before," he said.

Spackenkill TA President Blanche Wisniewski said the district got the defibrillators after the state law requiring them was approved. "The district has one in every building and has made training available to anyone who wants it," she said. Last year the district offered training during an in-service day and many staffers participated.

"It was a matter of being in the right place in the right time," Tannini said. "And having the right equipment right down the hallway."

- Sylvia Saunders

Eau Claire North Coach Resuscitated, Thanks to Defibrillator

Associated Press (Chippewa Falls, WI)

January 8, 2004

A defibrillator at a high school helped resuscitate a coach when he fell to the floor during a high school girls basketball game, a day after his team was ranked first in the state.

Dan Sippel, 56, the Eau Claire North girls basketball coach, fell face-first to the court Tuesday night with about two minutes left in the fourth quarter of a 48-28 North victory as his team remained undefeated in 10 games.

On Monday, Eau Claire North was voted first in the Associated Press state Division 1 high school basketball poll.

Sippel was hospitalized in stable condition Wednesday after collapsing from a heart attack at a game against Chippewa Falls.

Eau Claire superintendent Thomas Fiedler said Sippel also cut his forehead when he fell and was unconscious until he was revived with a cardiac defibrillator. Fiedler said the coach underwent surgery.

Eau Claire North Assistant Principal Becky Davis said the defibrillator was installed at the school last February at the urging of a school nurse who has since retired.

Sue Johnson, a nurse who had returned to the main gym after watching her daughter play in a freshman game, started mouth-to-mouth resuscitation as another nurse, Brenda Layman, started chest compressions. She was asked if Sippel needed defibrillation.

"I knew that's what was needed, but I didn't realize they had it at the school," Johnson said.

Two Eau Claire Fire Department members who were at the game took over. Dave Gee said he took over the mouth-to-mouth resuscitation while Lance Hanson set up the defibrillator.

Sippel "came around" after the first shock, Hanson said. "Within 15 to 20 seconds his eyes started blinking, and he started breathing." Dr. Stuart Bergen, medical director of the state Project ADAM at Children's Hospital of Wisconsin in Wauwatosa, said it was the first time a school participating in the program used a defibrillator to resuscitate someone.

The program is named for Whitefish Bay High School student Adam Lemel, who collapsed and died during a 1999 basketball game from an undetected heart condition. It gives schools information on defibrillators and helps get them training for using the equipment.

Dr. Douglas Terpstra, an Eau Claire orthodontist who also was among those who offered help, said Sippel was lucky.

"What struck me, when I look back, is how fortunate he was that it happened at a high school with a defibrillator, where there were people trained in CPR," he said. "Had Sippel fallen anywhere else other than a hospital, there would have been some more serious problems." Although there was time remaining in the game, Chippewa Falls coach Jeff Dahl immediately told the referees he had no interest in continuing.

Sippel was given a standing ovation as he was wheeled out of the gym.

"All of our thoughts, prayers and wishes are with Sip right now," North forward Molly Anderson said. "We are the team we are because of him."

Sippel works in campus security at North, and his wife, Diane, is a general assistant at the school. On Wednesday, she thanked everyone at the school for their help.

"The defibrillator at the high school saved his life, and we are so glad it was there for Dan," she said.

Dan Sippel served as an assistant coach for eight years before taking the head coaching job before the 1999-2000 season. He has also been an assistant coach for the North football and softball teams for the last 13 years.

Jacobowitz helps revive man at Whitestown meeting

Thu, Dec 4, 2003

By MELISSA A. CHADWICK

Observer-Dispatch

WHITESTOWN -- A Whitestown resident collapsed during the regular meeting of the town board Wednesday night, and the leader in the unresolved race for town supervisor was part of a team who revived him.

Ted Radley had a heart attack seconds after questioning the board about a neighbor's continuing codes violations, Town Clerk Joanne Zegarelli said.

David Jacobowitz, who ran against incumbent Matthew Shannon for town supervisor in November, was sitting next to Radley when it happened about 7:45 p.m. Jacobowitz recently retired as chief of the Whitesboro Fire Department.

Radley, who supported Jacobowitz in the election, was still being evaluated in the emergency room at St. Elizabeth Medical Center late last night, a hospital spokesman said.

"I looked at him. I saw him straighten out. His whole body got straight right in the chair and he went off the chair," Jacobowitz said.

He and Codes Officer Dave Neary rushed to Radley's side, checked for a pulse and began to administer CPR for about five minutes.

Someone rushed to the ice rink at the Whitestown Community Center to get a defibrillator from Notre Dame High School hockey team who was playing a match against Clinton High School.

Man remains hospitalized after collapse

The man who collapsed at a Whitestown Town Board meeting Wednesday night underwent surgery Thursday afternoon, a St. Elizabeth Medical Center spokeswoman said.

Whitestown resident Ted Radley had just finished questioning the Town Board and town codes officer about his neighbor's codes violations when he sat down, stiffened and collapsed.

Radley was assisted by Codes Officer Dave Neary and David Jacobowitz, who leads in the unresolved race for town supervisor. Neary and Jacobowitz administered CPR and used a defibrillator to revive him. They were assisted by several others who attended the meeting.

Radley was taken to St. Elizabeth's Wednesday night.

© 2003 UticaOD.com / Observer-Dispatch

SAVING LIVES

Six dramatic rescues (and counting) are credited to the union-backed defibrillator law

December 3, 2003

From left, teacher Charlie Bateman, dentist Alan Katz, and publisher Lee Minetree were part of the rescue team for Dexter Grady, shown in foreground with an AED.

When custodian Dexter Grady of East Hampton Middle School was trained last December to use the school's new portable defibrillator, he never dreamed he'd be the first one revived by the life-saving device his union had helped to put in schools.

It was March 13. As usual on Tuesday and Thursday evenings, the 37-year-old custodian spent his dinner break playing a pickup game of basketball in the gym with a bunch of friends, including teachers Claude Beudert and Charlie Bateman.

Grady had just finished a game and was taking a breather when he suddenly felt light-headed and collapsed on the bleachers. Alan Katz, an East Hampton dentist, rushed over and began administering CPR, while Beudert and Bateman called for help and retrieved the Automated External Defibrillator from the hallway outside the gym. After three shocks with the AED, Grady started breathing normally and regained consciousness. He was rushed to a nearby hospital where he received bypass surgery.

"I'm here because of God's grace and mercy, the quick actions of my buddies - and the fact that AEDs are required in every school," said Grady, a member of the East Hampton Non-Teaching Employees in Suffolk County on Long Island.

In the nick of time

New York State United Teachers, his local union's statewide affiliate, had helped achieve legislation just months before that required the life-saving devices be available in schools.

"We knew the law would save lives, but we had no idea how soon, or how many," said NYSUT President Tom Hobart.

In addition to Grady, at least five other lives so far have been saved because AEDs were at school sites. "Hopefully these latest incidents will convince more school districts to come into compliance," said NYSUT Executive Vice President Alan Lubin. "We are proud to have helped achieve legislation that has already had such a powerful impact for good."

A grateful Grady returned to work. He is even back on the court, playing pickup basketball.

"If I had been somewhere else in the deep of the building, I would've been found dead," Grady said. "Or if it had happened a few months earlier, or my district ignored the law, I'd be dead. There's no question in my mind: That law saved my life."

The union-backed bill, which requires an AED in every public school, was approved last year by the Legislature and governor after vigorous lobbying by the union and the passionate pleas of the parents of two teenage boys who died at school events where there was no defibrillator on hand.

Louis Acompora, 14, died March 2000, after he was struck in the chest while playing goalie for the Northport varsity lacrosse team. Gregory Moyer, 15, died in December 2000, while playing in a basketball game. Since their tragic deaths, the boys' parents have made it their mission to turn grief into action - to get AEDs in public buildings around the state.

"This is Louis' legacy," said his mom, Karen Acompora, whose foundation donated the AED that saved Grady's life. "When we lost Louis, we knew that we had do everything we could to prevent it from happening again."

"Each AED in a public place is like lighting another candle for Gregory," said Rachel Moyer, a Port Jervis teacher who worked with NYSUT, her statewide union, to win the law after she lost her son. "All these lives saved dramatically make the point that AEDs really do make a difference."

An international scientific study released last month confirmed that survival chances from cardiac arrest are doubled if you're helped by trained people using an AED.

In New York, in addition to Grady, other lives saved by school AEDs include:

• Dec. 9, 2001: Muhammad Shah of Nesconset, a 15-year-old student at Smithtown High, collapsed walking to class and was revived by school nurses Marilyn Clark and Liz Chitkara.
• Nov. 16, 2002: John Tierney, a 62-year-old football fan who collapsed in the stands at a high school playoff game was saved by an AED operated by Locust Valley athletic trainer Whittney Smith.
• Dec. 16, 2002: Andrea LaFleur, a 16-year-old automotive student at Orange-Ulster BOCES, was saved by teachers and a school nurse.
• Jan. 11, 2003: Judy Schneider, a 43-year-old chemistry professor at SUNY Oswego, was saved at Webster High School, where her daughter was competing in a swim meet.

In an amazing development last spring, NYSUT brought a defibrillator (donated as a "thank you" by the Moyers' foundation) to its annual convention in Washington, D.C., where it was used to save the life of a New York City delegate in cardiac arrest. Retired Brooklyn district representative Herb Yules was rescued by a team led by nurses who are members of the United Federation of Teachers. Yules is now doing great and a big fan of AEDs.

Despite all the heartwarming stories, Rachel Moyer and Karen Acompora can't stop thinking about the places that still don't have AEDs.

During one tragic week in January 2003, three students from different New York City schools suddenly collapsed in cardiac arrest. One was in a classroom; another in a gym class; a third was trying out for baseball. The schools did not have AEDs: All three students died.

"We're making progress, but we're not where we should be," Moyer said. "Too many schools are not in compliance. I have a list of 18 kids in the country who have died playing sports since Aug. 22, 2003, in schools."

Moyer noted that in Orange County, athletic directors have agreed that sporting events will only be played at schools equipped with AEDs.

"I think that's a great policy," she said.

Moyer filed a Freedom of Information Act request with the State Education Department to find out how many New York schools are not in compliance with the state law that requires districts to purchase AEDs and train staff.

She was sent a list showing 638 districts out of 800 reported having at least one AED, but that means thousands of buildings still don't have the life-saving device and trained staff.

"Just New York City has 1,200 buildings," Moyer said.

School districts can pursue several avenues to secure funding for AEDs. Some schools and local unions have hosted fund-raising events; others have received state legislative grants or help from the Moyer and Acompora family foundations. With quantity discounts, the cost of the life-saving devices is down to about $2,000 each.

Survivors speak out

Perhaps the greatest advocates for AEDs are those who have been saved.

"I know I wouldn't be here now if it weren't for that defibrillator," said Andrea LaFleur, who was saved by three teachers and a school nurse at Orange-Ulster BOCES. "I'm incredibly lucky that the (BOCES) Vo-Tech administrators responded so quickly to the new law and took the time to train people on how to use them."

LaFleur was one of 42 survivors recognized recently in Washington by the National Center for Early Defibrillation, with 42 representing the number of people who suffer cardiac arrest every hour in the United States.

As part of the event, LaFleur spoke at a congressional briefing about the benefits of having high school students get AED and CPR training in health class.

Campus crusader

Another of the 42 survivor honorees was Judy Schneider, the chemistry professor at SUNY Oswego and a member of United University Professions. She was saved by lifeguards when she collapsed at her 10-year-old daughter's swim meet at Webster High School.

"I'm living proof that everyone's at risk - it could happen to anyone at anytime," Schneider told congressional representatives and staff. "I was only 43 and had no previous heart problems, no blockage, no warning. It was just my good fortune that my heart short-circuited at a school that had an AED."

Schneider, who now has an internal defibrillator pacemaker to keep her heart in check, urged congressional representatives to improve Medicare and Medicaid insurance plans to cover people who need the devices. "I'm blessed with good health insurance so it was covered; others aren't so lucky."

Schneider is working to get AEDs installed in every building on her sprawling campus. "I've been hunting for them on campus and found four," Schneider said. "But if people don't know where they are or how to use them, what good are they?"

Someday, Schneider would like to see AEDs as prevalent as fire extinguishers. "To me, they're just as essential," Schneider said. "Your life shouldn't have to depend on where you happen to have a cardiac arrest."

- 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.

PAD Trial Results Make the Case for Training Volunteers to Use AEDs

November 17, 2003 — Results of the Public Access Defibrillation (PAD) trial suggest that the number of survivors of out-of-hospital cardiac arrest (OOH-CA) nearly doubles when laypersons trained in cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) are also trained in and provided access to automated external defibrillators (AEDs).

The survival benefits of AEDs in the hands of public safety workers, such as flight attendants, security guards, and casino employees, has been well documented. However, to date, no randomized trial has been conducted to test whether nonmedical, true laypersons who do not have a formal duty to treat patients in medical emergencies can save more lives when they are trained and equipped to use AEDs, in addition to just calling 911 and performing CPR. The PAD trial, funded by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute, in partnership with the American Heart Association, is the largest prospective, randomized, controlled clinical trial undertaken to examine this specific issue.

PAD was a massive undertaking in which almost 20,000 volunteers were trained, said Chairman of the PAD Steering Committee Joseph P. Ornato, MD, Department of Emergency Medicine, Virginia Commonwealth University/Medical College of Virginia (Richmond).

Dr. Ornato presented the results at a late-breaking clinical trials session at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2003.

Standard CPR vs CPR plus AED

More than 1600 AEDs were placed at 993 sites in 24 regional sites in North America. Individual community units considered at high risk for OOH-CA were randomized to train layperson volunteers in either a 2-hour course that taught CPR only (recognition of cardiac arrest symptoms, instruction to call 911, and performance of CPR) or in a 4-hour course that trained volunteers in CPR, as well as in how to use an AED within a 3-minute time window. Additional retrainings were conducted at various planned intervals. Volunteers for the study had to have no duty to treat in medical emergencies (ie, physicians, nurses, emergency medical technicians, firefighters, and police were excluded).

Dr. Ornato reported that 24% of units were in shopping malls; 24% were placed in recreation centers; 15%, in residential units; 14%, in hotels, factories, and transit centers; 9%, in theaters and other entertainment centers; and the remainder in community centers and office buildings.

All PAD sites were within a “15 minute range of EMS [emergency medical services] response; we did not include rural or remote sites.” Follow-up averaged just over 21 months.

Distinguishing “presumed” from “definite” cardiac arrest

Dr. Ornato noted that the study design opened the door for ascertainment bias, in that an episode of sudden cardiac arrest could be misinterpreted. Dr. Ornato used the example of an elderly man found unconscious in a pool. If responders use an AED that documents ventricular fibrillation and efforts fail, his death is classified as a cardiac arrest. However, in the same scenario, if responders only use CPR and their efforts fail, the death is classified as a drowning.

To overcome the potential for this bias, an adjudication committee blinded to the intervention was used to distinguish presumed vs definite cardiac arrest. Cardiac arrest was classified as definite if ventricular fibrillation/ventricular tachycardia or asystole was identified by the AED or by EMS or if the victim was found unresponsive with no pulse and died after CPR.

PAD results show AED use doubled number of survivors

Over the study period, investigators reported that there were significantly fewer incidences of definite OOH-CA in the CPR-only group vs the CPR + AED group (103 vs 129, respectively; P = .041). This significant difference was expected, Dr. Ornato told attendees. The majority of OOH-CA events (85%) occurred at public places (the majority in recreation, shopping, and entertainment facilities), and 15% of OOH-CAs occurred in private residencies (eg, apartment buildings or gated communities). Dr. Ornato noted that clinical and demographic characteristics were well-matched between the 2 groups; victims were predominately white, male, and aged 70 years.

Investigators found that the number of survivors of OOH-CA through hospital discharge, the study’s primary endpoint, was nearly doubled in the CPR + AED group, compared with CPR only units (Table). As noted by Dr. Ornato, the rate of overall survival was still disappointingly low in all patients.

Table. PAD: Primary Endpoint

AED indicates automated external defibrillator; CPR, cardiopulmonary resuscitation

Disappointing survival rates for home defibrillation

Dr. Ornato said that 15% of the AEDs were placed in residential units, usually “large apartment complexes or gated communities in which the residents were 50 or older.” However, these home units only accounted for < 5% of survivors, and outcome was not influenced by the presence or absence of an AED; both the CPR-only and CPR + AED groups had only 1 survivor to hospital discharge when cardiac arrest occurred in a residential unit.

Dr. Ornato cautioned against extrapolating the PAD findings to the home defibrillation setting. In the residential units, AEDs were not confined to individual apartments. Instead, they were centrally located in a public setting, in which a trained volunteer would have to retrieve the device and return to the apartment where the victim lived in order to deliver therapy. According to Dr. Ornato, the large ongoing Home AED Trial (HAT) will specifically address the role of in-home defibrillation to determine its role in preventing sudden cardiac death.

PAD fails to answer all questions, but take-home message still important

Roger D. White, MD, Mayo Clinic (Rochester, Minnesota), hailed the PAD trial as “truly a landmark trial” that has been eagerly anticipated. But he said that the number of arrests was lower than had been anticipated and that “the data don’t tell us how many patients had a rhythm not treatable by AED.” Additionally, he said that the study failed to identify AED locations where the devices were most useful.

Richard L. Page, MD, Robert A. Bruce Professor and Head, Division of Cardiology, Department of Medicine, University of Washington School of Medicine (Seattle), told Medscape CRM that he did not originally support the PAD study because he thought it was unnecessary. He said his work in Seattle subsequently convinced him that AEDs could significantly reduce out-of-hospital sudden cardiac death.

“AEDs have been shown to be effective in non-randomized series such as in casinos and our study with airlines,” Dr. Page said. “This report [PAD] represents the largest randomized trial of AED use by trained volunteers, and the study confirms that the AED improves the chance of survival from sudden cardiac arrest.”

Nevertheless, the take-home message is still quite clear. Speaking at an AHA press conference where the PAD results were discussed, Raymond J. Gibbons, MD, Chairman of the American Heart Association Committee on Scientific Sessions Program and Arthur and Gladys D. Gray Professor of Medicine at Mayo Medical School (Rochester, Minnesota), said that the study clearly demonstrated “the value of training people to use AEDs in the kinds of public places that were described." Dr. Page agreed, adding, "It is time to fully deploy AED programs in places where numbers of people gather.”

By Peggy Peck
Reviewer: Albert A. Del Negro, MD

Copyright © 2003 Medscape.

Police Expand Defibrillator Program to Each Precinct

September 16, 2003

NEW YORK -- The city police department has given defibrillators to each precinct, transit district and public service area in order to help save the lives of people who have heart attacks, Commissioner Raymond W. Kelly announced Monday.

Officers have been able to restart the hearts of 16 people, 4 of whom survived, since the department began using the defibrillator equipment as a pilot program in 1997.

"We have not only provided this essential equipment to every precinct, we have also established a complete training program to ensure that our officers are fully prepared to use it during a medical emergency," Kelly said.

An automated external defibrillator is a device used to restart the heart by applying an electrical shock to it.

Other police units including the Harbor Patrol, Highway, Aviation, and Emergency Service units were also given the equipment.

Copyright © 2003, Newsday, Inc.

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.