MBFD brings man back from the dead

by John Tawa

Captain/Paramedic Lou Petroni, Engineer Chuck Neugebauer and Firefighter/Paramedics Tim Viselli and Mike Murrey were part of the "A" Shift that saved a man's life in May. Not pictured: Firefighter/Paramedic Derek Edmonds. Photo by John Tawa.

Last Tuesday, a smiling, healthy 44-year-old Manhattan Beach man walked into the Manhattan Beach Fire Department, two months after firefighters/paramedics saved him from a massive heart attack that should have ended his life.

"I had always been meaning to go back and thank them," said the man, who asked not to be identified.

The man had lost all memory of the day of his attack or any of the following week. He did not know who saved his life.

The captain on duty pulled the report to identify the firefighters who went on the call and told the man that one of the paramedics was on duty.

"Just as he said that, the paramedic walked through the door and the captain said, 'Do you remember this guy?'"

"I said, 'You look familiar, just not the same shade of color," firefighter/paramedic Mike Murrey recalled. "It was great to see him the way he was. He was real appreciative, just wanted to say thanks."

The first time Murrey saw the man, he didn't think he'd ever see him alive again.

The "A" Shift in Fire Station 1 was on duty in Manhattan Beach the afternoon of Sunday, May 7 when the call came in. A man was down on The Strand just north of the Pier. Murrey and firefighter/paramedic Tim Viselli, an 18 year veteran, were standing next to Rescue 21 and jumped into the vehicle. The rest of the Battalion Chief Ron Redmond's crew - captain/paramedic Lou Petroni, firefighter/paramedic Derek Edmonds and engineer Chuck Neugebauer -- was right behind in Engine 21.

Murrey and Viselli were on scene in less than one minute.

"We saw a gentleman down on The Strand in his running attire with a large crowd surrounding him," Viselli said.

The man, a 10-year Manhattan Beach resident, had been jogging on The Strand, as he had virtually every day for the past 20 years. He stopped to chat with a neighbor near the Pier when he collapsed.

The man was aware of his family's history of heart trouble. His father and two older brothers had suffered heart attacks in their late 30's and had had heart bypass surgery later in their lives. Trying to prevent this, the man went to the doctor regularly, where treadmill tests indicated his heart was okay. He exercised his muscular 5-foot-9, 195-pound frame, ate well and took medication to lower his cholesterol.

"I was doing everything I could to avoid what happened that day," he explained. "Because I knew that day was coming. I was trying to put it off as long as I could."

When the firefighters arrived, nobody was performing CPR on the man. A man and woman from the crowd may have initially assisted the victim, but may have given way once they saw the firefighters arrive.

"We started basic life support right then, the ABC's of CPR," Viselli explained. "We checked his airways. He wasn't breathing. He didn't have a heartbeat. We started breathing for the gentleman. We were doing compressions."

Engine 21 arrived moments later.

"We checked for a pulse right away," Petroni said. "No pulse. He wasn't breathing. Once we got the monitor out and had the defibrillator, that told us for sure that his heart wasn't working."

The firefighters had to move fast. A brain without oxygen dies within five to six minutes. The 911 call had come via cell phone, meaning it had first gone to the Highway Patrol before being transferred to the Regional Communications Center. Although Fire Station 1 was just up the street, critical moments already had elapsed.

"When he was hooked up, I saw he was straight line, which means you're dead," Neugebauer said. "Very few people come back from being dead."

The firefighters worked feverishly on the man, using the defibrillator, compressions and drugs to try and get a heartbeat.

"It looked like a tangle of arms," Neugebauer said. "But it was more like poetry in motion."

The firefighters got a heartbeat less than six minutes after they were on scene. And the man started breathing on his own as he was loaded into the ambulance.

Still, the firefighters were not hopeful. The man had been clinically dead for a long time.

"We all know we do the best that we can," Viselli said. "There's a good chance they're not going to make it. We treat them as if they are going to make it."

The man lay in a coma at Little Company of Mary Hospital for two days. Three days later, still heavily sedated and unable to remember anything, he underwent successful quadruple bypass surgery.

Viselli and Murrey went to visit him in the hospital.

"We care I guess," Viselli said. "We heard he seemed to be on a road to recovery and we wanted to go meet him. We go on a lot of heart attacks and full arrests. It's on the rare side when you hear that they're coming out of it."

The man recovered well, with no mental impairment, whatsoever.

"A call like this is real rewarding and delivering a baby is real rewarding," Petroni said. "Other than that, we go on a lot of tragedies. We don't go out on that many calls where we feel good. This was a good one."

That's what made last Tuesday's visit so special.

"You get to make a difference in people's lives every day we're here, regardless of the call," Edmonds said. "When they call 911, it's a big deal to them. If it's routine for us, like broken bones, you don't really get to see the rewards. But that guy, he was dead. Walking back into the station or knowing he was doing better at Little Company, you can see the difference in what you've done."

The man said he intends to visit the station again, when all of the people who worked on him are there. He also wants to thank the civilians who first helped him if he can learn their identities.

He stayed only a few minutes at the station last Tuesday, thanking Murrey for all of his help. But he had someplace to be. As part of his recuperation, doctors had ordered exercise. It was his first day jogging on The Strand.

"All the stuff that you're taught, in the right situation, everybody working together, it works," Edmonds said. "He went from dead to running on The Strand two months later." ER