For the second week in a row President Jay choose to abbreviate the regular meeting to provide more time for a special program. The club welcomed 30 members and guests. Visiting Rotarians were Doug Schrage from Anchorage Rotary, Spencer Madden from South and Jerry Wolfe from Hillside. PP Angie Rush gave the thought-for-the-day, from author Maya Angelou. “As you grow older you will discover that you have two hands, one for helping yourself, and other for helping others.” President Jay expressed appreciation to PP Joe Zimmerman and those who attended the successful Fireside Thursday night at the Zimmerman’s. Sergeant-at-arms PP Kevin Fimon conducted a quick circuit for happy bucks and then it was on to the program.
It is often said that that best salesperson for a product or service is a satisfied customer. Nelson Defendorf and fiancé Cindy El-Khoury are that. They have a happy ending story about Anchorage Fire Department’s Emergency Medical Service. About 7 years ago Nelson was feeling “off.” Called for medical advice to an insurance hotline and they recommended that he see a medical provider. He was changing clothes in their home when he collapsed. Nelson had suffered a sudden cardiac arrest. Cindy heard him fall and on investigating found Nelson unresponsive. She immediately called 911. The tapes of that call were played and are chilling. Using a relatively new procedure the 911 operator at the AFD dispatch center co-located with fire Station 12 near Diamond and New Seward quickly prompted Cindy to commence CPR. Traditionally the dispatcher would have had many questions. How old is the person, were they feeling poorly, medical history and other similar questions. Under the newer policy there are just two questions. Is the patient conscious and are they breathing? If the answer to those is “no” they immediately have the caller commence CPR. The memory items of this procedure are “NO, NO, GO!” The dispatcher will talk the caller through the procedure, step by step. They even start a metronome to assist with the timing of compressions. The statistical results of this procedure are remarkable. A surprising fact given was how effective CPR is. Paramedic Gallagher related that it is not uncommon for patients to awaken during CPR. The procedure is effective enough that blood circulation to the brain will have effectively brought the person back from the dead. Not restarted the heart but temporarily replaced it! He told the story to emphasize the point to not stop CPR until relieved or directed to by a professional.
Introducing the team of AFD professionals was Chief Doug Schrage. Presenting was Dr. Michael Levy AFD’s consulting medical advisor, Stephanie Wolf a dispatch supervisor and, Eric Gallagher a firefighter/paramedic. They spoke of how emergency medical services function as a team. They include in their discussion of the team non-professional bystanders. Immediate start of CPR has shown to improve survival by 2 to 3 times. Recognition of the need is critical, bringing up the NO, NO, GO for citizens. What they call the “chain of survival” includes Recognition, Early CPR, defibrillation, Advanced Life Support (ALS), and post cardiac care.
There was a question as to why emergency breathing is no longer taught? Dr. Levy explained that breathing doesn’t become critical if heart function is being maintained until about 5 minutes into the event.
A final take-away was that even without training on CPR and the use of the automatic defibrillator the 911 call taker can talk you through to potentially save a life.
It was a memorable important program!