CPR Works
Real life saving stories
August 27, 2017 - CPR works!
Golfers administer CPR on man suffering cardiac arrest
By
MARTIN ESPINOZA
THE PRESS DEMOCRAT
Everyone did exactly what they needed to do Saturday morning when a golfer suffered cardiac arrest near the 14th hole of the Rooster Run Golf Club in Petaluma.
When the golfer dropped, players immediately called 911, started performing CPR and contacted the course clubhouse. Staff raced to the scene with an automated external defibrillator, or AED, and deployed it three times.
By the time emergency crews from the Petaluma Fire Department made it to the patient, he was breathing on his own and had a pulse. Emergency personnel stabilized and readied the man for transport to the hospital.
“It was amazing how great of a job they did,” Battalion Chief Jeff Schach said. “The golf course employees deployed the AED and were the ones to actually run the machine, while other employees escorted firefighters and their equipment out to the incident.”
Schach would not release the name of the victim. A golf course representative reached Sunday evening said he could not respond to questions.
Schach said the man appeared to be in his early 50s. The event, he said, demonstrates the importance of being able to respond quickly withlife-saving techniques such as CPR, the proper use of defibrillators and the value of installing more AEDs, which are easy to use.
“It shows us how important it is for bystanders to jump in when people are in need — before first responders get there when somebody is in sudden cardiac arrest,” he said. “Some just turn on when you open the case. The machine will start talking and walk the bystander through the process. It won’t deliver a shock unless the person actually needs it.”
Schach said Saturday’s rescue shows the efforts to place AEDs in the community and “preaching” the importance of CPR are paying off.
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