Cardiac Arrest Survivor Searches and Finds Paramedic Who Was “Comforting Soul” on Her Journey

First responders often have to look hard for the right address, the right house and even the right person to deliver what is often life-saving care. But it’s not often that a survivor of the care provided by a paramedic goes on a protracted search for a first responder – and finds him five years later. Yet that’s exactly what happened in the case of Battle Ground, Wash. paramedic David Crabtree and the young woman whose survival he contributed to on Feb. 12, 2013. When Heidi Stewart, now 23 and an American Heart Association Go Red For Women volunteer, was a senior at Evergreen High School in Vancouver, Wash., she went into cardiac arrest at school. She had an undiagnosed heart condition, Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Dysplasia (ARVD), that could have killed her. But school administrators and teachers put their CPR training to good work, and Stewart, then 18, was still alive when a team, including Crabtree, arrived.  Stewart had been without oxygen for eight minutes. Crabtree, a father of two, was particularly concerned. “To have a girl like this go down, that’s tough,” Crabtree said. En route to the hospital, Stewart barely knew what was going on, but she was very aware of a man’s voice offering her comfort and reassurance on the scariest ride of her life. “It was just his voice,” Stewart said. “I couldn’t see anything but I could hear his voice over the course of the ambulance ride.” The sound of that voice gave her hope, Stewart said, and may...
Source: JEMS Patient Care - Category: Emergency Medicine Authors: Tags: Cardiac & Resuscitation Patient Care Source Type: news