Emergency!

 

Article Submitted by Suzie Moore, Airdrie Wolves

Sunday August 9, 2020 - It was approximately 8:45 pm. I had just closed the boys' windows for the night and was tucking our youngest in. I heard this frantic banging on my front door and someone screaming my name. It was our neighbor.  She said "It's an emergency. Wayne needs you."  Wayne is my husband.  He had been out helping the neighbors on their truck and I automatically thought "OH NO! The truck fell on him!" I grabbed my phone and my shoes and ran out the door.

What I found was an emergency situation, but not involving my husband.  My husband heard a woman, who had gone to the back seat of a vehicle, start gurgling.  He thought it did not sound right, so he looked at her and saw that she was not breathing. He yelled for her husband to come. Her husband shook her and yelled her name, but she did not respond. Her husband took her out of the car and laid her on the ground so we could start CPR. Her skin started to change colour and her lips were turning purple. She needed oxygen right away!

As I approach the scene, I found Wayne kneeling on the ground next to a woman I have never met before. No heart rate and not breathing, lips blue, feet were going white. She was minutes away from death's door. She was unconscious, so we had automatic consent to give CPR.  We knew she had a seizure because she had bit her tongue and it was bleeding. Other than that, we had no idea who she was, where she came from, or any of her medical history.

My husband was on the phone with 911 and started compressions. All I can remember is 1,2,3,4,1,2,3,4 - this was the speed we had to do compressions to keep her blood flowing. She kept gurgling and bubbles were coming out of her mouth.  She would take some deep breaths and then stop breathing again. We couldn't get her breathing, but my husband kept going. After about 6 minutes of chest compressions, I could feel her pulse in her wrist. I yelled "WE HAVE A PULSE!! DON'T STOP!!"  I had to keep encouraging my husband to keep going and told him he was doing an amazing job. I offered to step in but he said "No. I have got this."

It took almost 20 minutes for an ambulance and a fire truck to show up. My husband kept on administering CPR while we waited. When the emergency personnel arrived, they grabbed their equipment and came running. There was so many cop cars and spectators.  People were running up the streets yelling and crying because they thought it was one of their loved ones. They were coming from everywhere.

It took the EMT's over 10 minutes and 20 cc's of adrenaline to get the woman to start breathing on her own.  A few minutes later she sat up, they loaded her on the gurney and off they went to the hospital.  

My husband was a hero.  Don't call him that though.  He doesn't like it -- haha. He said "This is what I am trained for. I will never walk away from anyone in a situation like that. It's what I do" He is so awesome.

The woman was released the next day.  She is healthy with a bruised and sore chest due to compressions.

I have been first aid trained for 14 years. The worst thing I have ever dealt with is an exposed knee cap on the side of a mountain.  It took a few seconds to jump into that role.  If my husband was not there at that exact moment, a mother/wife/daughter/aunt/sister would have died out front of my neighbor's home.

I am so thankful for our first aid course through JFW.  If it wasn't for that course, I would not have been trained to handle that situation in a calm manner.  Thank you Jackie for teaching us.  I hope to be enrolled again this year as I expire in November.

Hug your loved ones every chance you get. This was an accidental overdose on prescribed medication.  Read and follow the labels and directions of the professionals.