Defibrillator Saves Mans Life
By Scott A Sumner
Thunder Bay Business
62 year old Dave Nuttal is one lucky guy. The retired Thunder Bay high school teacher who taught at Churchill for 30 years was playing hockey last December 14th at the Port Arthur Arena with a bunch of fellas. Early on in the hour on the ice with no warning he collapsed. “
The goalie had got hit in the throat with a puck and we were gathered around him to make sure he was alright. I felt the slightest bit of dizziness and was gone, down on the ice. I had no recollection of falling at 11am.” stated Dave Nuttal.
Brant Kiessig, a Captain with the Thunder Bay Fire Service in the training division was also on the ice playing hockey that day. “ We have a regular ice time Fridays for a recreational game we play. The hour of ice just started and the goaltender had a puck in the throat so we were checking on him when Dave collapsed on the ice. I saw the look on his face and knew immediately he was in serious trouble. The first thing that popped into my mind was some kind of a cardiac event,” stated Kiessig. “ I rolled him over and assessed the responsiveness in
30 seconds. We determined Dave was VSA -vital signs absent, so we initiated CPR. During the course of the CPR I remembered that they had AEDs in the rinks as I had seen it on the news 2 weeks earlier. So I spoke to the guys to get the AED from the lobby and he brought in back in less than 2 minutes. We detected a shockable rythmn, shocked him and within a minute or two Dave came back and was talking to us. He was fully lucid.The heart is like a jelly quivering but not pumping blood with an electrical problem.The defibrillator stops the heart so that your natural pacemaker in your heart resets and gets a normal sinus rythmn. Dave started to pink up so we knew he was OK.”
“ I awoke in about 1 to 2 minutes. I had had an irregular heart beat for quite a while. For whatever reason this time the ventricles decided to go into fribulation. Brant Kessig and Brian Drombolis who is an ICU nurse both were there which was very lucky. The AED was also
there, from as little as two weeks ago I have been told,” stated Nuttal. “ They both started working on me using life saving techniques and used the defribulator with in a minute or two. The ventricals were in fribulation and not doing any work. The electrical shock knocks
the fribulation back into normal rythm. I felt no pain before, during or after. I didn’t have a heart attack. The ventricles just started quivering.”
“ I spent a week in the hospital under observation. They checked me for everything and found my valves work perfectly. They also did an angiogram and found I have no blockages. Nothing was done from an operational sense,” stated Nuttal. “ From a secondary standpoint I had an internal defribulator placed in me. If it happens again this thing will kick my heart back into rythym. I took a month off but am back playing hockey and was back on a bike at the Athletic Club a few days after I was released from hospital.”
Diana Sustawenko is the general manager of the St. John’s Ambulance in Thunder Bay. “ Today is part our 125 year anniversary at St John Ambulance. We designated today as AED Automated External Defibrillator day. It is becoming imperative that businesses get involved and initiate their own AED program because it will only benefit their employees and families. With an AED machine you are buying time for that person. You should shock within 3 to 5 minutes,
with 3 minutes being the best. If you are in a place where an ambulance cannot get there in 3 - 5 minutes you should have an AED in place,” stated Diana Sustawenko. “ St Johns Ambulance sells two different types of AED machines and will go into your business, access where you
machine should be placed, do the training on the machine and provide the medical direction. People are trained in our 6 hour AED course under the auspices of our medical director in Toronto, Dr. Edward Wasser. We also have first aid and CPR programs which is performed in
conjunction with shocking the heart. Each company should have targeted first responders that are trained in the use of the machines. Anyone can use the machines following the prompts but some people will panic.
