November 9, 2025 • 55 mins
In this powerful episode of Medic2Medic, two remarkable survivors, Jim Hallett and John Storm, who both suffered sudden out-of-hospital cardiac arrests and live to tell their stories.
Jim, a lifelong Washingtonian and respected community leader, and John, a retired IT executive and avid mountaineer, share their deeply personal journeys from the moment their hearts stopped to the moment they stood again. Both men survived thanks to the Whatcom County EMS System, early CPR, and the seamless teamwork between bystanders, first responders, and hospital staff.
Jim and John remind us that behind every EMS call are real people, families, and communities, and that every trained responder, every AED, and every compassionate hand matters.
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-309-jim-hallet-and-john-storm-against-all-odds-surviving-sudden-cardiac-arrest--68390154
Medic2Medic is back, bringing authentic voices, untold stories, and the human side of Emergency Medical Services and beyond.
Jim, a lifelong Washingtonian and respected community leader, and John, a retired IT executive and avid mountaineer, share their deeply personal journeys from the moment their hearts stopped to the moment they stood again. Both men survived thanks to the Whatcom County EMS System, early CPR, and the seamless teamwork between bystanders, first responders, and hospital staff.
Jim and John remind us that behind every EMS call are real people, families, and communities, and that every trained responder, every AED, and every compassionate hand matters.
https://www.spreaker.com/episode/episode-309-jim-hallet-and-john-storm-against-all-odds-surviving-sudden-cardiac-arrest--68390154
Medic2Medic is back, bringing authentic voices, untold stories, and the human side of Emergency Medical Services and beyond.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
Before we start today's episode, I want to give you
a quick heads up. This one's special. You're going to
hear from two incredible survival stories from men who, against
all odds, are alive today because of the strength of
their families, of the EMS system, and the coordination in
the hospital and everybody else here in Walcome County. As
(00:21):
a reminder that when you call nine to one, one
through our families, responders and moments that change lives forever.
So let's get to the podcast. In this episode, come
up again, come king and getting.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Attention all listeners on this frequency stand by for.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
An important announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Welcome to medic to Medical podcast, the weekly podcast for
EMS providers, EMS leaders, EMS, medical directors, and others involved
in or those who have an interest in emergency medical services.
Ladies and gentlemen, here's your host, Steve Cohen.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
This podcast is titled Against All Odds Surviving Sudden Cardiac Arrests.
My guest are Jim Hallett and John Storm. They both
are survivors of cardiac arrests. I am so happy to
have you both here as well. Today's episode is one
that hits at the heart of what EMS is all about.
Saving lives when making a difference when seconds count, and
(01:30):
this podcast tells stories from provider's side, from the paramax
e empts, the telecommunicators and physicians, and we make up
the emergency response team. But today I'm turning the tables
and we're gonna hear from two men. So Jim and John,
welcome to Medical Medic Podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So I'll start with you.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Jim, it's actually good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, well, I appreciate it. It's an honor for me to
both have you here as well. So I'm gonna start
with you.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Jim.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Just tell us a little bit about yourself and where
you're from and what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
So not a native Washingtonian, I've been. I was fortunate
enough to start my life in nineteen fifty five in Olympia, Washington,
and then about the year I turned ten, my folks
moved to a small community of Port Orchard on the
Kitsap Peninsula, and I went from fourth grade through high
(02:24):
school to South Kitsap High School, and then I was
planning to go to the Air Force Academy, but I
was injured my senior year of playing tennis of all things,
and had to have major back surgery and start boring
out a walk again and things like that. So anyway, providentially,
I ended up going to Pacific Lutheran University, graduated with
(02:48):
a degree in Business administration with a triple major in finance, marketing,
and communications. I worked for the next ten years after
graduation with a fortune five hundred companies, a lot of traveling.
But at that and that's when I first got exposed
Steve and John to emergency medical services because in my job,
(03:12):
my job was to provide communications systems, among other things,
to police, fire and first responders. And so I got
to meet police chiefs and fire chiefs, and we've got
a firsthand introduction to how emergency medical services did work
and an eye opening experience of how that could work
(03:34):
if done properly. So that then in turn led to
an opening to run for public office, partly out of
desire to make our our first response when our community
finally got nine to one one into place. We were
dispatching out of the funeral home for medical so you
(03:58):
weren't sure which rig would show up up, the ambulance
or the long black limo. So somewhat tongue in cheek there,
but not so much so so anyway, we eventually when
I ran for office, I was in my twenties, probably
the youngest person to ever get elected there. But long
story short, that we started. We stood up a more
(04:21):
consolidated emergency medical services system, so I got to meet
a ton of really nice folks and the public got
to see the benefits of having a coordinated system.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
This would have been in the late nineteen eighties.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Shortly after Watkin County got its AMS system established too,
So as time.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Went on, I switched careers. I started an.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Independent financial planning and wealth management firm in nineteen eighty seven.
Fairly auspicious beginning, given the fact that marketstrapped twenty five
percent in one day and I had five clients at
that time, and the four of them were wondering what
just happened.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So that that but.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
That life got better and I was very fortunate to
have great folks I worked with, and the firm grew
and got to the point where after thirty five years,
it was time to follow my own financial plan in
the semi retirement or one of our sons lived here
in Bellingham and we had been coming up to visit,
(05:23):
and so after serving a couple of terms on the
city council as mayor and then later as support commissioner.
My wife Joanna and I decided we want to turn
our attention more to pending retirement time with family and
a little bit of that. So that worked out well.
Moved here into Bellingham in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
After that, among other things.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
You're looking to get re established with your medical providers.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Hold off on town. That's I'll get you there in
a second if you're okay.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
All right, anyway, So that's my background, just native Washingtonian
public office, worked with.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Some MS stuff, and we'll get to that story, I promise.
That's it, all right, John, to tell us a little
bit about yourself.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Thank you well to see I'm sixty two years old now.
I grew up all over the country, but I wound
up in Salt Lake City, Utah, Parks at Utah for
a very long period of my life. My life is
always a rock around scheme. So my oldest son is
professional snowboarder. My family lives to ski. So we lived
(06:30):
in Park City for a long time. I had to
do a stint as an executive IT manager on Wall Street,
which is a very stressful job, and we moved back
east around Manhattan, New York for a period of time
twenty three years working for Wall Street.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Decided that I was done and I needed to get
moved back out west. We're home right back to skiing,
and I thought we were moving back to Park City, Utah.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
And I had a conversation with my oldest son who
lived in Salt Lake at the time and his friends
World professional skiers, and post the question to them, Hey,
you know, I'm retiring if you could live anywhere in
the United States as long as there's a decent airport
and the best skiing that you can think of.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Not really interested in corporate ski areas. I'm listening. You know,
this is a retirement scirea where I want like a.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
Good ethos, a nice community, an interesting town to live in.
We're coming home in Park City of Utah. And they
all said Bellingham. And I didn't even know where Bellingham was,
and so I quickly did some research and another three
months later, my wife and us moved to Bellingham. That
was December of twenty twenty started skiing at Mount Baker
(07:44):
a lot and that ended with why I'm on your
show today, which should be an interesting story to tell
when we get there.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
All right, well, good, well, Jim, what was your life
before the event? You're a big fan a VMS John.
You're also part of the respond To program. You're helping
people up on the mountain as well. Do you remember
what your life was before the event? What were you doing?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
So your question was you know about what was life
like before the event? And sure, I remember all of
that just fine. So on Valentine's Day in twenty fifteen,
after coming back from a client's retirement and party in Seattle,
I was at home and my wife and I were
downstairs in our house in Port Angelus at.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
The time, and.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
I just didn't wasn't feeling real spiffy and I and
I asked he hied to remind me again what we
had for dinner, because I'm just something just isn't right,
and she said, well, it wasn't probably anything you ate.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And so I'm you know, five ten minutes go by,
but I'm.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Starting to get a headache, I'm starting to perspire, and
when my right arm started to hurt, I realized I am.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Not doing well.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
So my wife looked at me and she's said, you
don't look right, and I said, well, I haven't looked
right most of my life, but that means said I
don't feel right, and she said, we're going to.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Call nine one one.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
So my friends who worked in the volunteer fire department
were the ones that came to my house. And make
a long story short, there's no place in Port Angelis
that had cardiac care facility. But they determined I was
having a heart attack, and so I either had the
choice to fly by helicopter to Seattle or go buy
(09:29):
ambulance to Bremerton. I chose the ambulance route because I said,
if I fly helicopter, I want to see where I'm going.
So anyway that they got me to Bremerton, got me stable.
They determined in the I did have a heart attack,
but I could be treated with meds and some follow
up cardiac rehab work, which I did and I came
(09:51):
out of that just fine. Just certain new prescription drugs
and be smart about how you live your life. So
that was twenty fifteen. As I when I moved to
Bellingham in twenty eighteen, getting established at a local dentist
then was one of the things on my to do list.
Went into their office and as I was filling out forms.
(10:16):
The dentists came in and introduced herself and say, one
of the things we always do with new patients is
get their vitals and we're going to take your blood pressure. Well,
I since twenty fifteen, I had been engaged in a
pretty rigorous cardiac rehab program of my own design and
involving indoor rowing, among other things. And I had worked
out that morning, been taking my meds religiously and never
(10:37):
missed a beat. And she looked at me and she said,
you're not doing well. And I said, how do you know?
I feel great. She says, your blood pressure is way
off the charts. You need to go see somebody.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
So a couple of.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Weeks later, I'm down at the University of Washington having
a I got moved to the front of the line
and they did the doctor Lombardi, one of the pioneers
of this procedure in the United States, did two stands
in my left hand tier descending called the widow maker.
So had I not gone to the dentist that day,
I was asymptomatic.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
When that goes, you're gone.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
So somebody something was going on there looking out for me.
So but then I so I went through the rehab
program again and continued right along. Three years later, on
following Father's Day, the friday before, I had seen my
cardiologist and my general practitioner, both back to the back appointments.
(11:32):
Got an A plus on my report card, doing great,
You've reversed your.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Arts disease symptoms.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
You're instead of being in your mid sixties, you're in
your early forties at least as far as your cardio
goes right on.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Cool.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Great.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
So that was Friday. Monday morning, I'm doing my workout
and I don't feel right, but it's I must have
done something.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Wrong while I was rowing. That's what I told myself.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
What of right there? I want to bring John in
a little bit to get to build up his his
day and what he was doing before. Were you up
on the mountain?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, when we get there, it happened up on the
mountain out of the blue. I had no.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
High cholesterol, right, And so you know, if we dig
into the past, my father had a heart attack, my
father's brother had a heart attack, my father's father had
a heart attack. But then again, I'm the only one
in the family with hair at this age.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
They're all bald and so I thought I was immortal.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
I was like, I'm not related to them, And what's
high cholesterol.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
That's not a big deal, right, everybody has high cholesterol.
So that's as far as I got.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
You know, I have a microbauve prolapse that had been
diagnosed with in when I was twenty, But you know,
they're just like, that's a heart murmur. It's not a
big deal. Keep on top of that, which was unrelated
to any of this, right, and yeah, So on that
faithful day, I was skiing up at Mount Baker, as
you know, it's a very remote place, yes it is,
and had no premonition it was coming, and I had
(12:55):
very little memory of the actual day itself.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, Jim, I'm gonna go back to you for
a second. We're going to go back to that day.
Walk me through what happened, and what do you remember
and what do you know?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Now? So on that day, in.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
About almost completed with my fifteen thousand meters of rowing,
and I've got about twenty five hundred meters left to go,
and both arms start hurting behind where your triceps are.
When that that that didn't register?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Like John, My my.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Father died at a young age actually died in front
of me of a heart attack. There was there was
nothing anybody could have done in that case. But so
that's and my family history of cardiacs so and my
own personal at that point. But my my logical mind
is telling me it cannot be this because you just
saw your professionals a little over forty eight hours ago,
(13:51):
so it is not that.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
But you know, I.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Started up my rowing again and my arms continued to hurt,
you know, really uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
So I'm I'm coming.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Downstairs from where I work out, and my wife sees
me and she says, you okay, And I said, my
arm's hurt, and she says it's heart attack and I.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Said, no, I can't be. I just saw my doctors.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It's not that.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Let me just sit here.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Said aren't you heading out to an appointment?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (14:18):
And I said, well you should go, and she she says, I'm.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Going to wait here for a few minutes.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
So a few minutes go by and I'm not getting better.
I don't have pain anywhere else, don't chest pain. No.
I started getting a headache, and she says we should
call nine one month and I said, it's going.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
To be a false alarm there is.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
This is not bad, Joe, just I mean, it doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
So another couple of minutes go by and.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
She says, I'm calling, so she cancels her appointment. She
gets on the phone and dials. I talked to the dispatcher.
I explain what's going on, and she says, choose some baby.
I asked, eighty one milligram asprin and you have nitro
And I said, I have nitro glycerine, but I've never
taken it.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Ever.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
She says, you should take some. Now. Come to find out.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
After the fact that nitro had expired, so what I
was taking wasn't effective, but I didn't know that at
the time. And she said, we are sending some folks
to you, so stay on the line with me. So
I did, and I hear the sirens and they pull
up into our driveway and there are there's They came
out of the city of Bellingham, the Events Life Support
(15:28):
Unit and the BLS unit, so first responders are here.
I walked to the door and I let them in
and I'm talking to them like I'm talking to you
and John now. And I sit down on the couch
in my living room and they're in there with the
gurney and they've got their EKG strip and they're on
the phone with some dispatch and they're talking me through
stuff and asking me questions and I'm answering them, and
(15:48):
they hooked me up and they say, you're EKG is fine.
And I told you.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I said, I told yourself, it's not coronary.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
And they said, well, given your history in your recent
you know, a left an tier descending the operation of
a little over a year ago, in your history of
heart attack, let us take you in. You're doing to
do us a favor. I said, all right, So I
get on the gurney, I hop up and I lay down,
and they're wheeling me.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Out the front door.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
And I remember looking at the weather stripping around the door,
thinking I've got to replace that, and starting to fail.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Why would I see that? I have no idea.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Then I thought, well, they must have given me something,
because now my arm pain is totally gone. And not
only is my arm pain gone, but I am now
feeling warm all over, and I am sitting at a
table behind a curtain in front of me, and this gorgeous, beautiful,
undescribable light situation. Well, then well, of course, in hindsight,
(16:49):
I was told what had happened. That's when I went
into full cardiac arrest. I didn't that. I thought I
was doing fine. They must have given me an IVY
or something. I didn't feel. So I come to the
ambulance in our driveway and they said, welcome back. It
felt like somebody had dropped me from the ceiling of
the of the eight car down onto the gurney and
off they go. And then I went out again. When
(17:12):
I woke up on Interstate five with a medic shoving
a syringe into.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The bone marrow of my right thigh.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
He had to shove it with a mallet and I
wake up screaming, and because I didn't know what was
going on on, my leg was just killing me. And
they said we couldn't numb it. Sorry about that, and
none I went out again. So I came to in
the hospital and that's when they told me what had happened,
so I can account for where I went.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
They match all that up with when I had flatlined.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
I didn't know at the time, but my son had
come to the house and as he gets out of
the car, they're watching his dad be given CPR and
then the paddles come out and I'm being shocked multiple
times to get me.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Back into rhythm.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Then they had to do it again in the back
of the eight car got to the hospital and it
was like Moses party in the Red Sea. I mean,
everybody moves out of the way and you go straight
into the kap lab. And that's when I was That's
when they told me what had officially happened. They did,
they did a atigram and all of that, and and
when all of a sudden, then Stephen John, the cardiologists
(18:19):
had talked with me and then talked with my family
and they said Jim was one of those folks that
that the official diagnosis is a gork the g O
r K. God only really knows. So they didn't know
why I went into rest. They did add another stint,
but that was more of a preventive measure. It wasn't
called didn't have to happen, but it.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Was the right thing for them to do.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
But yeah, so that's my story and and and the
person here's the takeaway from that. Stephen John is one
of the paramedics in the back of the car had
just learned that procedure called interosteo where they where they
put the syringe and they among other things was adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That when in there.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
That's what saved my life. And he had just learned
that procedure less than forty eight hours earlier. You all
these things that have to slot into place just so,
and the training that people had in the dispatcher who
insisted on, you know, me staying on and going, and
the folks that the first responders and the paramedics that
were there, all of that stuff, Every single one of
(19:22):
those things slotted just so. All I have is nothing
but profound gratitude for the folks.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
In the MS.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And you can't forget about your wife, right Well, if.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Fatfully her brain overruled my heart, Joanne, I love her.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
We've been very fortunate to have been married to my
best friend for almost thirty five years, and so she
knows me better than I know myself at times. And
if she hadn't insisted on that call, and if she
had gone ahead and just left, you'd be talking to
John and nobody else me I wouldn't be here.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Right before we get to John's, Uh my mom, my
dad was playing tennis and came home with a He
had a slight twinge of pain in his right shoulder,
and he came home and he looked white as a ghost.
And my mom said to my dad. My dad was
very stubborn. I said, you don't look good, you don't
(20:19):
feel good. I'm gonna call nine one one. And he said, no,
you're not. I'm going upstairs, take a shower, and I'll
be fine. And my mom did not listen to him,
called nine one one. Forty some years later. That's how
I got in my That's how my MS career started.
Because of his heart attack. Wives, moms, they know, learned
not to argue with them. Going to you, John, you
(20:41):
were up on the mountain doing your skiing things. It
was a beautiful day. Go ahead, take it from there.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
It was a bluebird day, blue skies. I guy said,
I had only fragments in memory of the day. A
lot of what you know I can tell you in
the story is piecos fragments together there. But also third hand,
I've talked to a lot of the first responders who
are on the scene. Obviously my wife was with me
for a significant portion of it there, and so the
(21:10):
story that I can play out and it's it's very
much like Jim's Like, if it wasn't for the amazing
response of the first responders and the whole EMS chain
of handoff that happened that day, I wouldn't be here.
It's just incredible, right, including unlike in Jim's case, some very.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Bad decisions that I made on that day that I
take ownership.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
So we're skiing and on a remote portion of Mount Baker,
so it's one that you just can't get down to
the bottom. You have to take a lift back up
to get over to the main launch. And I was
just tired, like I do have a fragmented memory of
pulling up and waiting for my wife.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
And generally I ski very fast and and you know,
outdoor great shape, right, And she goes, you know, how
do you like you use skis?
Speaker 6 (21:57):
And I said, oh, they're skiing really good, but I'm
really tired, like I know to do ten turns and
I'm short of breath, right, And she goes, well, what
do you want to do? And I go, well, let's,
you know, let's start heading back to the main lodge area, right.
And so we get back on the chair lift and
we're riding up and She's constantly asking me how I'm feeling,
and I'm.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Starting to not feel good.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
You know that that feeling if you've ever had really
bad tank blood pressure, like as a bag of sincope
kind of response or something.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
By that feel of doom starts to set in.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
I didn't have any chest pain, I didn't have any
compromise or anything in the arms or whatnot, but I
just sort of had this something's not right feeling.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Right, So we ski down and we get down to
the base, and.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
At this point in time, like my wife has to
help me get the skis off, Like I'm not really
in a condition even to bend down now to take
the skis off. And if you're familiar with Mount Baker,
right there at the White Salmon Lodge, right across the
parking lot, right there is the first aid room with
the twelve lead KG and paramedics and doctors on staff
that are there.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Right, goes, what do you want to do?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
And I said, let's just get in the car and
drive to the hospital on Belling. Bad decision, right, I
look back on it in the day and go, man,
I just like that should have cost me my life
right there, and my wife, you know she just bless
her heart, she didn't override the decision, right, she was
(23:22):
panicked as well, and she goes, Okay, that's what we'll
do if you think that's.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
What we need to do. So we get in a
car and we start driving.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
If you're familiar with the area, it is about forty
minutes from Mount Baker down to Glacier, which is the
first town you'll hit. There is no cell phone coverage
during that whole trip, and even in the town of
Glacier there's no cell phone coverage by the time we
got to Glacier.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And I can back up my father when he had
his heart attack.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
He was on a long distance bike ride and he
rode for forty five minutes while he knew he was
having a heart attack, and he came home to the
house and he called the am vilence and he went
in and told my mom, I'm going to go lay
down on the bed. The ambulance has going to knock
on the door, let them in. Everything's okay. So I
thought I had time, right, So we get to Glacier
(24:11):
and at this point.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I'm really not doing good.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
I don't quite remember other than I was in severe
pain and my wife runs into a little market there,
a restaurant market called Graham's and asks if she can
borrow their landline because there's no cell phone coverage there.
It calls nine one one dispatch. They you know, tell
(24:36):
the normal protocol. Do you have any baby ass burns?
She buys some stay on the line. Luckily it was
a cordless wireless phone that she was able to take
back out to the car where I was, and within
fifteen minutes Glacier Fire Rescue was on the scene. I
do have a fragment of memory of someone saying you
are having a heart attack, right, which was sort of
(24:57):
a yeah, no kidding diagnosis.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
And then they put me in there BLS rig and.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Started transporting me towards Bellingham. We met with an ALS
rig out of Bellingham in Maple Falls, so that's another
twenty minutes fifteen minutes to Maple Falls. By that time
I was being transferred into the ALS rig.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
At Maple Falls, I.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Had a Lucas device on and boy, that really rips
up your chest.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
It took a whole year to come back from that one.
And then.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Chief Josh Evans from the Glacier Fire Rescue, this was
his first day as chief.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
It was his first day on the job.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
He was the first responder that was on me and
stayed with me even into the als rig all the
way into Saint Joe's. They I think shocked me twice.
So they did have a shock of bull rhythm and
they hit me twice, but I was in full cardiac
arrest with that. Luckily the cath lab was opened, no
one was in there. They rushed me into the cat
(26:08):
lab and they immediately did full antigram and catholicization.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
The left cornary artery was completely.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Bopped, which is above the lower anterior descending, so the
lower anterior is desending was getting nothing. Nothing on that
left side of the heart was getting anything. So they
did a full cathorization place to stent. I woke up
and the nurse goes, you had a heart attack, and
I went, yeah, I think I know that.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
That's going to be there.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
And then to this day I sort of pieced back
and go, man, what happens if I didn't make it
the glacier or man, what happens if Glacier Fire Rescue
was out on a call somewhere and wasn't there to
immediately get on top of me right, because it was
a matter of another five minutes and I'm sure I
would have been dead man.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
What if it wasn't Josh, because Josh was just you know.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
I don't remember on that day, but in talking to
people and talking to him afterwards, like the first responder
care that he gave me that day was absolutely top notch.
You know what happens if ALS there's only I think
six ALS rigs in all Walkham County, Like what happens
if there wasn't.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
An ALS ring that was ready to go right and there.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Was what happens if someone was in the or five
five ALS ray So you know, Walkom County is a
pretty big county. You know easily that ALS rate could
have not been ready to rock and get me on
a transport. And you know that helped save my life,
if not saved my life in there, the fact that
like Job rode all the way in with me and
(27:38):
stayed on my bidles through his patient the whole ay,
you know, I think that was just amazing, amazing, amazing.
What if the cat lab had been scheduled, there was
someone in there and they had to park me and wait,
Like everything just lined up perfectly from that EMS system
on that day.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
For me, you know, regardless of the.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Bad decision I made, everything else went perfect, right, And
so yeah, post that, you know, I've I've wasn't involved
in EMS or you know, I have my CPR certification
that you know everybody should get, but that really caused
me to sort of think about how to get back.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
So it's been a journey since twenty twenty one to.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Get medical certifications and become part of the ski patrol
organization up at Mount Baker.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
And now you're a CPR instructor too, and.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Now I'm a recent CPR instructor as well.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, that's right. How about that?
Speaker 5 (28:33):
All right?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Thanks, you're welcome, my pleasure, and I'll just toss this
out to both of you and you guys can think
about this because you kind of touched on it some
of it during your storyteller. First of all, again, thank
you for being here and sharing your story. This is great.
But when you think about that moment and you just
(28:54):
retold the story, what stands out the most? Was there
something after you just reached hold? This is something that
sticks out or something that just sticks in your mind?
Go ahead, John, why don't you start with that.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Well, I think one of the biggest things that I
question of that day.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Is of myself why I made that decision to drive
down the mountain rather than going into the first aid room.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
And since I've become involved with Mount Baker Ski Patrol,
and I know the first aid room staff that's top
notch quality, and you know there are paramedics and doctors
in there, and what they could have done for me.
And i'd walked in that door, right, and they probably
would have brought in helicopter transport rather than trying to
bring ales or BLS riggs up, so I probably would
(29:38):
have been flown down. They would have been on that
much faster right, And so I really questioned why I
made those decisions that I made right. And that's something
that I think is a message to sort of talk
to people about that there is this really strong sense
of denial, like when this event is taking place, you've
(29:59):
denied this is really happening to you, and then you
don't want to be a bother to anybody else, like
you know, oh, I can take care of myself, it
will be okay.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Then it's not. This is not it. It's a false alarm.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
Whatever it may be forced me to make what was
ultimately a really bad decision on that day. Luckily ems
saved me from that bad decision, but you know, I
have to own up to the fact that that was
a really bad decision that I made. And you know,
if anything and talking to people, don't make that decision
that I made right, And even to my wife, like
(30:34):
never never asked the person you suspect is having a cardiac.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Event, what you think you should do? Just take charge
and make the decision for them.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
Well, I think I certainly appreciate what John said. I
think there's a certain element in in all of us,
but I don't know that for certain time, and just
speak for how I see things at times. And it's
something that it took a long time, and during my
life as I grew and hopefully matured and learned that.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
It takes.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Sometimes it takes courage to ask for help. Asking for help,
you have to acknowledge you can't necessarily do something on
your own. And like John said, if you're asking for help,
you're going to inconvenience somebody because that's what you think.
And so in my case, it was a if I
(31:29):
hadn't seen the partiologist and my general practitioner on a Friday,
and now we're forty eight hours later. My logical mind
is saying, this just can't be, because how could I
go in the over.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Over a two day weekend.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
How could I go from being great to being in
desperate straits? It just doesn't make sense, Okay. But thankfully,
like John said, my wife overrode my sense of logic
and put practical thoughts to the forefront and said, let's
do this.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
And I was embarrassed.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
To bring open the door and bring the paramedics into
my house because I told them, you're this is you're
going to come and go here. I'm sorry about it
disrupting your day. So that's that sticks out, and that
they stayed with me, that the paramedics listened.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And you know, they were in communication there.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
The strip that they hooked up showed perfectly normal cardiac know,
no evidence of the heart attack at all. And I
never did have a heart attack, you know what.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
I what happened to me. My heart went out a
rhythm and it went into that.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
I saw the strip on it afterwards, and it was
a really weird thing, as normally you just got this,
but mine were these massive loops and then just flatlined.
So I, you know, I saw what happened to me afterwards.
But it was that that acknowledgment that I needed to
set my ego aside. I needed to set my pride aside.
I needed to let somebody do their job to know
(33:07):
what that was going to entail. I told the guys
this would not I didn't start Monday morning thinking I'm
going to invite paramedics into my house. I mean, if
you want to come and have coffee with me or something, great,
but you're not going to be here to you know,
let alone have to put paddles on me multiple times
to bring me back to life. I just that wasn't
on my day. So I agree one hundred percent of John.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
You know you thankfully I never left my house.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I mean, I and my spouse state with me and insisted.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You know, to be through that.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
But the other thing that sticks with me is that
is the I didn't know how the EMS system respond.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You know, where the dispatch.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Was and you know, at the time of my event,
we had four ALS units to serve the entire county
at lockhom and that's a pretty large geographic area.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Mine happened to come from the city.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Of Bellingham, the Broadway State, which is you know, more
than five minutes from because I live off chuck On
and Drive and the BLS people that came, I mean,
they were professional, they were compassionate, they were caring, and
they knew their stuff. And to do that inter osteo
and my right thigh.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You know, that stayed in my leg.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
For almost two days and it was a conversation piece
among folks at the hospital. There were professionals to work
in the hospital and said, I've worked for thirty years.
I've never seen that done on anybody. So, you know,
the person that had just taken.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
That training, I don't know what it would.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
Be like if it was you know, if I had
to put paddles onto John or you Steve, never having
done it before, it would probably be you know, as
a lay person, I would do it because I've since
taken CPR training, which I agree with John and I
plot him for being involved.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
At the skier. Everybody should have that.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
You should have to have CPR training, sechu in order
to get a driver's license. Some countries that's what you do.
But I digressed it. It's just just the fact that
these they went to that professional spot where people go
and it becomes a subconscious thing of putting their professional
skill set to work and not doubting themselves that they
(35:14):
went ahead and did it. But all of these things
came together.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
So that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
That's so amazing is it's a system of parts and
pieces that have to come together to work right, and
we have We live in a county where these results
are among the best in the nation, and the public
needs to be needs to know more, not just John's
(35:42):
in my story, but many many others. And I've been
very blessed to meet folks who are like John and
I who have been the benefactors of this, and to
a person, they almost all say the same thing, how
grateful they are.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
They had no idea all the.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Things that go into place to make this work.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
In John's case, we had just took we.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
Since I'm now involved with policy making on emergency medical services,
were still growing our system. But it needs that attention
and care and policymakers and others who are responsible for
the nurturing of that really have a good thing going.
(36:22):
And I'm just very grateful.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Let's talk about your families for a moment. This kind
of event doesn't just happen to one person, It happens
to everyone around them. How did your families react in
the days and weeks after your cardiac arrests? How do
you personally process what happened emotionally and mentally? And we'll
go ahead, John, Why don't you start if you.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
Think back to that time Eebruary twenty twenty one, that
was the height of COVID.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
So my wife was forced to watch this and be
a part of it. And then she.
Speaker 6 (36:57):
Was driving behind the LS rig was parked right behind
it as they transferred me from the Laitia Fire Rescue
into the ALS ring at Maple Falls. She could see
that I was unconscious. She knew something really bad was
going on, right and uh. And then when she pulled
up to the hospital, they wouldn't let her in. She's
(37:17):
not allowed to come in. It's during the days of COVID,
and so they said, you don't have to go home
and we'll call you. And so she had a very
long period of time where she had no idea whether.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I was alive or not, or what was going on
or what was happening. And then.
Speaker 6 (37:35):
You know, after I came out of the surgery and
was in the the you know, intensive carery in it there,
cardiac intensive care. She still was not allowed to come
visit me, so, you know, it was a long period
of time where you know, I I was on my own,
but that was okay because you know, I was still
(37:55):
recovering and all that.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
But I can only imagine what the family went through.
Speaker 6 (37:59):
Because you know, all the kids flew home here to
support her. She basically had to you know, like try
to you know, a couple of days before she could
talk to me on the phone. But she had to
go through it all remotely. She was allowed to come
in a visit, and that was that was pretty hard.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Jim well John just said the part that I my
first thought after I became totally conscious and I'm in
the cath lab and they're running the wires threw up
through my wrists and.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Stuff and see what's going on.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
I'm having a conversation with the folks there, and that's
when it first hit me and I lost it because
my first thought went to my son. And I saw
the son out of the corner of my eye before
I went out, so I knew he was there, but
I felt for my wife too, same thing. They you know,
she she was told that they would reach out to
(38:52):
her and let her know, but they, you know, they
weren't sure I was going to make it by the time,
you know, because I had gone into a rest a
second time, they had shot.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Me a third time.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
So after I learned that and was able to This
was shortly after COVID, so this would have been in twenty.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Twenty two, but they wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
They'd only let one person at a time in, and
so my son, who had witnessed this, also could not
come and see me, So I had to talk briefly
on the phone, and they limited that too, so he
did not have a full story. Neither of them knew
what the downstream consequences were.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Going to be, if there were any, So that was hard.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
And you know, like like John said, you're by yourself.
You weren't being you were in a place of care,
So that was fine.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Mentally, that was okay.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Then to go along with your question Steve about that
the cardiac rehab program at Saint Jose's, I think is
a good program for the physical component of that. What
they don't have is anything for the mental side of things.
So in when I was going going through three days
(40:01):
a week for twelve weeks, so that's thirty six sessions
of cardia agria.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I've never missed a day.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
I got to meet other folks variety of reasons. Some
had heart attack, some had stance put in that but
they were eight. Otherwise they were perfectly fine. And some
of them, some of those people were afraid to go
to sleep at night, that they would never wake up.
If they go to sleep, they would die. They didn't
want to talk to their family about anything. You know,
(40:28):
the story I had of post death you know experience.
You know, I'm not alone in that, but it's not
you know, it's my story. Other people have their own
story and they were some of them afraid to share
that because people look at you like you've lost your mind.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That just can't be, you know.
Speaker 5 (40:44):
So the mental health component of that for not only
folks like John and I who had the experience personally,
but the family and others surrounding that we were.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
I was invited up to Baker area because there was.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Another success story with somebody who had who was skiing
downhill and a tourist was going up on the left
and watched this person fall over and just didn't look right.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
That was a success.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
So I was talking to this person's spouse and I asked.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Her how she was doing it.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
She's she broke down because she says, everybody is paying
attention to my husband, and rightly so he's the one
that suffered the event, but the rest of us you
are dealing with the fallout. I would much rather be
the victim than the than the witness, you know, because
it you know, to watch somebody you love.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Not good.
Speaker 5 (41:43):
So I would hope that our system pays some attention
to the mental health component, not just for folks like me,
but also our family members. And then God bless the
first responder. Somebody who is volunteering gets a call and
shows up and then you know, does their thing and
then goes home. It doesn't know what happens until maybe
(42:04):
two or three days later. It's just all all of
the human condition that makes each person special is also
something that's very fragile and and take a lot of
work to get through.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
John, you've become something voice for cardiac awareness and survival
from sharing your story. What message do you hope people
take away from hearing your story?
Speaker 6 (42:33):
Well, those are the conversations that I also have with
my boys.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
So one, just because when you the first time a
doctor says you have high.
Speaker 6 (42:42):
Cholesterol, your like spidey sense and antennas need to go up.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Don't ignore that.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
You need to start making life decisions, even if you're
twenty years old, right, because it's not going to get better.
There's a family history here, don't ignore it and just
you know, figure out whatever lifestyle way you want to
manage that.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
But don't ignore that issue. Right.
Speaker 6 (43:02):
Ultimately I did, and that's where it got me in
this issue that's going to be here too.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
You know, we talked about that, you know.
Speaker 6 (43:13):
A commonality between Jim and I where we were both
in a point of sort of denial or not wanting
to ask.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
For help or whatever it may be.
Speaker 6 (43:23):
That's that's burning precious time, right, that's going to be there.
And events can I mean, I think someone who people
who've never been through a cardiac event like this don't
realize how fast it can go south, so fast it
falls off a cliff.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Like you are here.
Speaker 6 (43:41):
At one point, you're having a conversation with the paramedics
who are at your door, and the next thing you know,
you're on a journey and you're going down.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Right.
Speaker 6 (43:48):
In my case, I was like, oh, we can make
it to billing him. We can make this drive and
within a matter of you know, fifteen minutes, so I'm
in full cardiac distress right and another ten I'm in
full cardiac arrest.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
It goes south very very fast. So don't be afraid
to reach out. Just you know, if it's a false,
false lead, or if it's if.
Speaker 6 (44:09):
It's not what you you know it could be, then
no harm dead.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
You know. Being part of the Mount Baker.
Speaker 6 (44:15):
Ski patrol, this we roll up on people who are
hurt all the.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
Time and they're like, no, we'll just ski down. We'll
take care of ourselves. You know, we don't want to
trouble anybody.
Speaker 6 (44:26):
And I have this conversation with them, trying to explain
to them there's a patroller at the top of the
mountains sitting bump in a hut board out of their mind,
who's going through a ton of training and lives.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
For this right now, right they are they're you know.
Speaker 6 (44:42):
Not wishing ill on anybody, but you're going to make
their day that they get to come down and.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
You know, practice their art and their skill and help you. Right,
that's why they're up here. That's why they're in this business.
That's why they are first responders. Right.
Speaker 6 (44:57):
It is a taxing job, is a mentally difficult job
for them, but it's also when they score a success.
It's you know, I remember when I had the conversation
with Chief Josh and the Mount Baker parking lot a
year later, where I said, hey, man, it's almost a
day a year, you know, to this day, it's almost
(45:17):
a to this day that you guys saved my life.
And he goes, oh, you're the dude with the new
Jersey license plates.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
Yes, yes, I am going to me, but thank you.
Speaker 6 (45:31):
You know, I could just see the whole Glacier fire
rescue crew that was there.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
They were just all tackled pink that, you know, like
they knew that that was a success. So they knew
they hit it out of the park that day.
Speaker 6 (45:41):
So don't be afraid to call nine one one, you know,
that's that would be My big counsel is is get
help and get.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
Help fast if you think something's going on.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Jim, you now starve on the EMS servisight board here
in the county. You also are very heavily involved in
the president's share of the MS Foundation of Walcome County
EMS Foundation. That's a remarkable way to give back. What
might have atee you to get involved both in the
EOB as well as getting involved in the foundation and
(46:14):
what's the mission of the foundation?
Speaker 3 (46:17):
Well, thank you for asking about that.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
So the foundation came about as a result of my
event and out of a profound sense of I would
say gratitude. In our house, we have one word on
the wall when you come in. It's a metal sculpture,
but it says the word gratitude on it. We've had
(46:40):
that up for many, many years because I tend to
feel that the metre of fact that you know, anybody
can breathe and take a breath and.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Enjoy the sunrise in the morning.
Speaker 5 (46:53):
Despite life's challenges and stuff.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
You know has their heads screwed, honestly, reasonably straight. You
have a sense of gratitude for just what is.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
So that was instilled in me as a young child,
and it doesn't imunize yourself from life's challenges. It doesn't
mean you you get a pass because you have that appreciation.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
For just everyday things in life.
Speaker 5 (47:16):
But out of that sense, when you have something like this,
there's a there's a there was at least a need
in my case to be able to say thank you
in a in a in a meaningful way, a visible way.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
What can I do?
Speaker 5 (47:29):
And so I asked the person that came in to
check on me. I said, I want to thank the
firefighters and the paramedics that saved my life. I mean,
what do you say to somebody that saved your life?
How many times does that happen in a day? You know,
most of most of us probably hopefully won't have that experience.
I mean hopefully we you know, ideal and we all
(47:50):
live to be whatever age we do, and we go
to sleep and everybody, you know, you come into the
world crying, and everybody when you leave, they're just they're
thrilled to death. You had such a great life. You
include it so well. But in this case, I asked
about that, and I said, I want to thank the folks.
And I said, at least let me make my family
and I make a financial contribution to the foundation.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Well we don't have one.
Speaker 5 (48:13):
Well, I've set them up in other communities before, different
types and stuff.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
And I said, well, then let's do that.
Speaker 5 (48:18):
So that's the foundation the genesis of that was out
of a profound sense of gratitude knowing that the way
the MS system operates in Whatcom and on other communities
in the state of Washington, under the laws and governing
in this systems, there's other things that that are helpful
to the men and women that work in the MS
(48:39):
that the that the system itself cannot do by law
because it's not possible or the funding just isn't there
to do all the things that keep people in good space.
So meeting with the folks at the Broadway station in Bellingham,
you know that that apparently just didn't doesn't happen very often.
I don't know why should, but at least in my case,
(49:02):
it was really really important for me to close that
loop and to tell the folks, you know, thank you.
I mean, you know, I it just seems hollow just
to say thank you, thank you, thank you for saying
in my life. I mean, isn't there something else you
could say or do? And most of them to a
person to their credits that we're just doing our job,
(49:23):
and they use the word just, you know, just doing
our job. Well, that's what a professional would say. That's
of course, that's what they do. But on the receiving end,
that's it's not that the just portion of that isn't
isn't enough.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
And I said.
Speaker 5 (49:36):
You by allowing me and others to thank you, you
are you are allowing us to do something that's part
of our recovery. So that's the gen. The mission of
the foundation is to to support those initiatives that advance
pre hospital care.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
That's it in a nutshell.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
So both of your stories are my I under the
sudden cardiac arrest doesn't discriminate. It can happen to anyone,
anytime and anywhere. I'll give you an opportunity, both of
you to have any kind of closing statements or something
that you might just want to say to the public
or to the MS providers out there. By John, you
(50:18):
can start.
Speaker 6 (50:19):
Yeah, I sort of alluded to this already that I
feel like somewhat lucky that the chain of care just
played in my favorite that day, right, But I don't
think it was an accident, you know, listening to Jim
and listening to everything else, all the training that everybody
brought to the table that day, and the quality of
(50:40):
care that I got, and the handoffs that happened I
had personally a fantastic experience in the cardiac I see
you during recoverage. The nurses were fantastic, The level of
care was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (50:54):
You know, the als.
Speaker 6 (50:55):
I was unconscious during that period of time, but you
know they were there and they were well trained and
they did what they do. Glacier Fire Rescue hands down.
Speaker 4 (51:05):
Saved my life by coming on the scene.
Speaker 6 (51:07):
Jim had already mentioned the cardiac rehab program at Saint Jose,
so I'm a graduate of that thirty six week program
as well, and I will echo exactly what Jim said,
the level of professionalism. When Jim was saying, there's people
in there who are afraid they're not going to wake up.
The next morning, I walked around with a cardiac monitor
(51:28):
on my chest because I was afraid that my heart
was just going to stop beating at any moment for weeks, right,
And so going through that program not only got me
better back into conditioning. Had a picture on the wall
of a past patient who had a heart attack and
went through their program and then won a golden medal
in some big growing competition, and I was like, man,
(51:50):
that's going to be me.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
I'm going to be that person, right, But.
Speaker 6 (51:55):
As Jim said, it was having peers going through that
and even professional people who work there and with you
just it was cathargic. It helped heal my mind as
much as it helped heal my body as well. So
my closing statement, the level of care from the first
responder all the way through to the rehab afterwards and
(52:15):
everybody involved was such a high degree of quality professionalism
that I can't have enough good things to say.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
I'm glad we've moved about ampire.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
James, you had a closing statement, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
Saw, I think you know. John said it very very well.
Speaker 5 (52:32):
Here's what I would Here's what I would put out
there for folks when something works. Well, maybe you listening
to this will never be where John ra I or
others of us have been. Okay, maybe you will never
need their services. Well, like you said, Steve, most of
(52:54):
the time when people understand, for example, that they're having
a heart attack is usually after their death and the
one thing, and there are other emergencies, so this is.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
Not just about cardiac arrest.
Speaker 5 (53:08):
That being said, the one thing that most als systems
are able to measure objectively is their response to cardiac
events and the success rates that oftentimes follow like in John's.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
In my case, Watcom County.
Speaker 5 (53:28):
Has one of the best success rates for SCA sunen
cardiac arrest survival not only in Washington State but throughout
the United States. And that did not happen by accident.
It's not the water here, it's not the climate that
makes it successful. It's the folks that are behind the
scenes doing the work. But more importantly, it's the public
(53:52):
that voted to approve a levy and tax themselves the
als system. When things work well and they don't make
headlines because you know, there wasn't an eight car available,
so somebody died, or it took too long to get
there before, somebody wasn't trained. We don't have those kinds
(54:14):
of stories here, and so when you have nothing but
successes heartful.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Thank you to both of you for sharing your stories
with me, and thank you again. And that'll wrap up
this episode of Medical Medic Podcast. Join me next time.
If you want to reach me, you can reach me
at medically Medic Podcasts at gmail dot com. You can
find this podcast on Podbean, Apple podcast as well as Spotify,
(54:43):
Speaker dot com, and of course my Facebook page. Until
next time. This is Steve Cohen saying stay safe, tell
everybody to take a good CPR course. Thanks, thanks James,
thanks John.
Speaker 6 (54:56):
Thank you jam thank you. Yes, hopefully we'll see each
other again
Before we start today's episode, I want to give you
a quick heads up. This one's special. You're going to
hear from two incredible survival stories from men who, against
all odds, are alive today because of the strength of
their families, of the EMS system, and the coordination in
the hospital and everybody else here in Walcome County. As
(00:21):
a reminder that when you call nine to one, one
through our families, responders and moments that change lives forever.
So let's get to the podcast. In this episode, come
up again, come king and getting.
Speaker 2 (00:44):
Attention all listeners on this frequency stand by for.
Speaker 3 (00:47):
An important announcement.
Speaker 2 (00:50):
Welcome to medic to Medical podcast, the weekly podcast for
EMS providers, EMS leaders, EMS, medical directors, and others involved
in or those who have an interest in emergency medical services.
Ladies and gentlemen, here's your host, Steve Cohen.
Speaker 1 (01:09):
This podcast is titled Against All Odds Surviving Sudden Cardiac Arrests.
My guest are Jim Hallett and John Storm. They both
are survivors of cardiac arrests. I am so happy to
have you both here as well. Today's episode is one
that hits at the heart of what EMS is all about.
Saving lives when making a difference when seconds count, and
(01:30):
this podcast tells stories from provider's side, from the paramax
e empts, the telecommunicators and physicians, and we make up
the emergency response team. But today I'm turning the tables
and we're gonna hear from two men. So Jim and John,
welcome to Medical Medic Podcast.
Speaker 4 (01:48):
Thank you.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
So I'll start with you.
Speaker 5 (01:49):
Jim, it's actually good to be here.
Speaker 1 (01:51):
Yeah, well, I appreciate it. It's an honor for me to
both have you here as well. So I'm gonna start
with you.
Speaker 3 (01:56):
Jim.
Speaker 1 (01:57):
Just tell us a little bit about yourself and where
you're from and what you're doing.
Speaker 5 (02:01):
So not a native Washingtonian, I've been. I was fortunate
enough to start my life in nineteen fifty five in Olympia, Washington,
and then about the year I turned ten, my folks
moved to a small community of Port Orchard on the
Kitsap Peninsula, and I went from fourth grade through high
(02:24):
school to South Kitsap High School, and then I was
planning to go to the Air Force Academy, but I
was injured my senior year of playing tennis of all things,
and had to have major back surgery and start boring
out a walk again and things like that. So anyway, providentially,
I ended up going to Pacific Lutheran University, graduated with
(02:48):
a degree in Business administration with a triple major in finance, marketing,
and communications. I worked for the next ten years after
graduation with a fortune five hundred companies, a lot of traveling.
But at that and that's when I first got exposed
Steve and John to emergency medical services because in my job,
(03:12):
my job was to provide communications systems, among other things,
to police, fire and first responders. And so I got
to meet police chiefs and fire chiefs, and we've got
a firsthand introduction to how emergency medical services did work
and an eye opening experience of how that could work
(03:34):
if done properly. So that then in turn led to
an opening to run for public office, partly out of
desire to make our our first response when our community
finally got nine to one one into place. We were
dispatching out of the funeral home for medical so you
(03:58):
weren't sure which rig would show up up, the ambulance
or the long black limo. So somewhat tongue in cheek there,
but not so much so so anyway, we eventually when
I ran for office, I was in my twenties, probably
the youngest person to ever get elected there. But long
story short, that we started. We stood up a more
(04:21):
consolidated emergency medical services system, so I got to meet
a ton of really nice folks and the public got
to see the benefits of having a coordinated system.
Speaker 3 (04:32):
This would have been in the late nineteen eighties.
Speaker 5 (04:35):
Shortly after Watkin County got its AMS system established too,
So as time.
Speaker 3 (04:40):
Went on, I switched careers. I started an.
Speaker 5 (04:44):
Independent financial planning and wealth management firm in nineteen eighty seven.
Fairly auspicious beginning, given the fact that marketstrapped twenty five
percent in one day and I had five clients at
that time, and the four of them were wondering what
just happened.
Speaker 3 (05:00):
So that that but.
Speaker 5 (05:02):
That life got better and I was very fortunate to
have great folks I worked with, and the firm grew
and got to the point where after thirty five years,
it was time to follow my own financial plan in
the semi retirement or one of our sons lived here
in Bellingham and we had been coming up to visit,
(05:23):
and so after serving a couple of terms on the
city council as mayor and then later as support commissioner.
My wife Joanna and I decided we want to turn
our attention more to pending retirement time with family and
a little bit of that. So that worked out well.
Moved here into Bellingham in twenty eighteen.
Speaker 3 (05:46):
After that, among other things.
Speaker 5 (05:48):
You're looking to get re established with your medical providers.
Speaker 1 (05:52):
Hold off on town. That's I'll get you there in
a second if you're okay.
Speaker 5 (05:56):
All right, anyway, So that's my background, just native Washingtonian
public office, worked with.
Speaker 1 (06:01):
Some MS stuff, and we'll get to that story, I promise.
That's it, all right, John, to tell us a little
bit about yourself.
Speaker 6 (06:08):
Thank you well to see I'm sixty two years old now.
I grew up all over the country, but I wound
up in Salt Lake City, Utah, Parks at Utah for
a very long period of my life. My life is
always a rock around scheme. So my oldest son is
professional snowboarder. My family lives to ski. So we lived
(06:30):
in Park City for a long time. I had to
do a stint as an executive IT manager on Wall Street,
which is a very stressful job, and we moved back
east around Manhattan, New York for a period of time
twenty three years working for Wall Street.
Speaker 4 (06:44):
Decided that I was done and I needed to get
moved back out west. We're home right back to skiing,
and I thought we were moving back to Park City, Utah.
Speaker 6 (06:55):
And I had a conversation with my oldest son who
lived in Salt Lake at the time and his friends
World professional skiers, and post the question to them, Hey,
you know, I'm retiring if you could live anywhere in
the United States as long as there's a decent airport
and the best skiing that you can think of.
Speaker 4 (07:13):
Not really interested in corporate ski areas. I'm listening. You know,
this is a retirement scirea where I want like a.
Speaker 6 (07:19):
Good ethos, a nice community, an interesting town to live in.
We're coming home in Park City of Utah. And they
all said Bellingham. And I didn't even know where Bellingham was,
and so I quickly did some research and another three
months later, my wife and us moved to Bellingham. That
was December of twenty twenty started skiing at Mount Baker
(07:44):
a lot and that ended with why I'm on your
show today, which should be an interesting story to tell
when we get there.
Speaker 1 (07:54):
All right, well, good, well, Jim, what was your life
before the event? You're a big fan a VMS John.
You're also part of the respond To program. You're helping
people up on the mountain as well. Do you remember
what your life was before the event? What were you doing?
Speaker 5 (08:10):
So your question was you know about what was life
like before the event? And sure, I remember all of
that just fine. So on Valentine's Day in twenty fifteen,
after coming back from a client's retirement and party in Seattle,
I was at home and my wife and I were
downstairs in our house in Port Angelus at.
Speaker 3 (08:30):
The time, and.
Speaker 5 (08:32):
I just didn't wasn't feeling real spiffy and I and
I asked he hied to remind me again what we
had for dinner, because I'm just something just isn't right,
and she said, well, it wasn't probably anything you ate.
Speaker 3 (08:44):
And so I'm you know, five ten minutes go by,
but I'm.
Speaker 5 (08:47):
Starting to get a headache, I'm starting to perspire, and
when my right arm started to hurt, I realized I am.
Speaker 3 (08:56):
Not doing well.
Speaker 5 (08:58):
So my wife looked at me and she's said, you
don't look right, and I said, well, I haven't looked
right most of my life, but that means said I
don't feel right, and she said, we're going to.
Speaker 3 (09:08):
Call nine one one.
Speaker 5 (09:09):
So my friends who worked in the volunteer fire department
were the ones that came to my house. And make
a long story short, there's no place in Port Angelis
that had cardiac care facility. But they determined I was
having a heart attack, and so I either had the
choice to fly by helicopter to Seattle or go buy
(09:29):
ambulance to Bremerton. I chose the ambulance route because I said,
if I fly helicopter, I want to see where I'm going.
So anyway that they got me to Bremerton, got me stable.
They determined in the I did have a heart attack,
but I could be treated with meds and some follow
up cardiac rehab work, which I did and I came
(09:51):
out of that just fine. Just certain new prescription drugs
and be smart about how you live your life. So
that was twenty fifteen. As I when I moved to
Bellingham in twenty eighteen, getting established at a local dentist
then was one of the things on my to do list.
Went into their office and as I was filling out forms.
(10:16):
The dentists came in and introduced herself and say, one
of the things we always do with new patients is
get their vitals and we're going to take your blood pressure. Well,
I since twenty fifteen, I had been engaged in a
pretty rigorous cardiac rehab program of my own design and
involving indoor rowing, among other things. And I had worked
out that morning, been taking my meds religiously and never
(10:37):
missed a beat. And she looked at me and she said,
you're not doing well. And I said, how do you know?
I feel great. She says, your blood pressure is way
off the charts. You need to go see somebody.
Speaker 4 (10:47):
So a couple of.
Speaker 5 (10:47):
Weeks later, I'm down at the University of Washington having
a I got moved to the front of the line
and they did the doctor Lombardi, one of the pioneers
of this procedure in the United States, did two stands
in my left hand tier descending called the widow maker.
So had I not gone to the dentist that day,
I was asymptomatic.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
When that goes, you're gone.
Speaker 5 (11:11):
So somebody something was going on there looking out for me.
So but then I so I went through the rehab
program again and continued right along. Three years later, on
following Father's Day, the friday before, I had seen my
cardiologist and my general practitioner, both back to the back appointments.
(11:32):
Got an A plus on my report card, doing great,
You've reversed your.
Speaker 3 (11:37):
Arts disease symptoms.
Speaker 5 (11:38):
You're instead of being in your mid sixties, you're in
your early forties at least as far as your cardio
goes right on.
Speaker 4 (11:45):
Cool.
Speaker 3 (11:46):
Great.
Speaker 5 (11:46):
So that was Friday. Monday morning, I'm doing my workout
and I don't feel right, but it's I must have
done something.
Speaker 3 (11:53):
Wrong while I was rowing. That's what I told myself.
Speaker 1 (11:56):
What of right there? I want to bring John in
a little bit to get to build up his his
day and what he was doing before. Were you up
on the mountain?
Speaker 4 (12:06):
Yeah, when we get there, it happened up on the
mountain out of the blue. I had no.
Speaker 6 (12:11):
High cholesterol, right, And so you know, if we dig
into the past, my father had a heart attack, my
father's brother had a heart attack, my father's father had
a heart attack. But then again, I'm the only one
in the family with hair at this age.
Speaker 4 (12:23):
They're all bald and so I thought I was immortal.
Speaker 6 (12:26):
I was like, I'm not related to them, And what's
high cholesterol.
Speaker 4 (12:29):
That's not a big deal, right, everybody has high cholesterol.
So that's as far as I got.
Speaker 6 (12:34):
You know, I have a microbauve prolapse that had been
diagnosed with in when I was twenty, But you know,
they're just like, that's a heart murmur. It's not a
big deal. Keep on top of that, which was unrelated
to any of this, right, and yeah, So on that
faithful day, I was skiing up at Mount Baker, as
you know, it's a very remote place, yes it is,
and had no premonition it was coming, and I had
(12:55):
very little memory of the actual day itself.
Speaker 1 (12:58):
All right, Jim, I'm gonna go back to you for
a second. We're going to go back to that day.
Walk me through what happened, and what do you remember
and what do you know?
Speaker 3 (13:06):
Now? So on that day, in.
Speaker 5 (13:09):
About almost completed with my fifteen thousand meters of rowing,
and I've got about twenty five hundred meters left to go,
and both arms start hurting behind where your triceps are.
When that that that didn't register?
Speaker 3 (13:26):
Like John, My my.
Speaker 5 (13:28):
Father died at a young age actually died in front
of me of a heart attack. There was there was
nothing anybody could have done in that case. But so
that's and my family history of cardiacs so and my
own personal at that point. But my my logical mind
is telling me it cannot be this because you just
saw your professionals a little over forty eight hours ago,
(13:51):
so it is not that.
Speaker 3 (13:54):
But you know, I.
Speaker 5 (13:55):
Started up my rowing again and my arms continued to hurt,
you know, really uncomfortable.
Speaker 3 (14:00):
So I'm I'm coming.
Speaker 5 (14:01):
Downstairs from where I work out, and my wife sees
me and she says, you okay, And I said, my
arm's hurt, and she says it's heart attack and I.
Speaker 3 (14:09):
Said, no, I can't be. I just saw my doctors.
Speaker 5 (14:13):
It's not that.
Speaker 3 (14:14):
Let me just sit here.
Speaker 5 (14:15):
Said aren't you heading out to an appointment?
Speaker 4 (14:17):
Yes?
Speaker 5 (14:18):
And I said, well you should go, and she she says, I'm.
Speaker 3 (14:20):
Going to wait here for a few minutes.
Speaker 5 (14:22):
So a few minutes go by and I'm not getting better.
I don't have pain anywhere else, don't chest pain. No.
I started getting a headache, and she says we should
call nine one month and I said, it's going.
Speaker 3 (14:35):
To be a false alarm there is.
Speaker 5 (14:37):
This is not bad, Joe, just I mean, it doesn't
make sense.
Speaker 3 (14:40):
So another couple of minutes go by and.
Speaker 5 (14:43):
She says, I'm calling, so she cancels her appointment. She
gets on the phone and dials. I talked to the dispatcher.
I explain what's going on, and she says, choose some baby.
I asked, eighty one milligram asprin and you have nitro
And I said, I have nitro glycerine, but I've never
taken it.
Speaker 4 (15:02):
Ever.
Speaker 3 (15:02):
She says, you should take some. Now. Come to find out.
Speaker 5 (15:06):
After the fact that nitro had expired, so what I
was taking wasn't effective, but I didn't know that at
the time. And she said, we are sending some folks
to you, so stay on the line with me. So
I did, and I hear the sirens and they pull
up into our driveway and there are there's They came
out of the city of Bellingham, the Events Life Support
(15:28):
Unit and the BLS unit, so first responders are here.
I walked to the door and I let them in
and I'm talking to them like I'm talking to you
and John now. And I sit down on the couch
in my living room and they're in there with the
gurney and they've got their EKG strip and they're on
the phone with some dispatch and they're talking me through
stuff and asking me questions and I'm answering them, and
(15:48):
they hooked me up and they say, you're EKG is fine.
And I told you.
Speaker 3 (15:52):
I said, I told yourself, it's not coronary.
Speaker 5 (15:55):
And they said, well, given your history in your recent
you know, a left an tier descending the operation of
a little over a year ago, in your history of
heart attack, let us take you in. You're doing to
do us a favor. I said, all right, So I
get on the gurney, I hop up and I lay down,
and they're wheeling me.
Speaker 3 (16:15):
Out the front door.
Speaker 5 (16:17):
And I remember looking at the weather stripping around the door,
thinking I've got to replace that, and starting to fail.
Speaker 3 (16:23):
Why would I see that? I have no idea.
Speaker 5 (16:25):
Then I thought, well, they must have given me something,
because now my arm pain is totally gone. And not
only is my arm pain gone, but I am now
feeling warm all over, and I am sitting at a
table behind a curtain in front of me, and this gorgeous, beautiful,
undescribable light situation. Well, then well, of course, in hindsight,
(16:49):
I was told what had happened. That's when I went
into full cardiac arrest. I didn't that. I thought I
was doing fine. They must have given me an IVY
or something. I didn't feel. So I come to the
ambulance in our driveway and they said, welcome back. It
felt like somebody had dropped me from the ceiling of
the of the eight car down onto the gurney and
off they go. And then I went out again. When
(17:12):
I woke up on Interstate five with a medic shoving
a syringe into.
Speaker 3 (17:18):
The bone marrow of my right thigh.
Speaker 5 (17:20):
He had to shove it with a mallet and I
wake up screaming, and because I didn't know what was
going on on, my leg was just killing me. And
they said we couldn't numb it. Sorry about that, and
none I went out again. So I came to in
the hospital and that's when they told me what had happened,
so I can account for where I went.
Speaker 3 (17:41):
They match all that up with when I had flatlined.
Speaker 5 (17:44):
I didn't know at the time, but my son had
come to the house and as he gets out of
the car, they're watching his dad be given CPR and
then the paddles come out and I'm being shocked multiple
times to get me.
Speaker 3 (17:55):
Back into rhythm.
Speaker 5 (17:56):
Then they had to do it again in the back
of the eight car got to the hospital and it
was like Moses party in the Red Sea. I mean,
everybody moves out of the way and you go straight
into the kap lab. And that's when I was That's
when they told me what had officially happened. They did,
they did a atigram and all of that, and and
when all of a sudden, then Stephen John, the cardiologists
(18:19):
had talked with me and then talked with my family
and they said Jim was one of those folks that
that the official diagnosis is a gork the g O
r K. God only really knows. So they didn't know
why I went into rest. They did add another stint,
but that was more of a preventive measure. It wasn't
called didn't have to happen, but it.
Speaker 3 (18:40):
Was the right thing for them to do.
Speaker 5 (18:42):
But yeah, so that's my story and and and the
person here's the takeaway from that. Stephen John is one
of the paramedics in the back of the car had
just learned that procedure called interosteo where they where they
put the syringe and they among other things was adrenaline.
Speaker 3 (18:58):
That when in there.
Speaker 5 (18:59):
That's what saved my life. And he had just learned
that procedure less than forty eight hours earlier. You all
these things that have to slot into place just so,
and the training that people had in the dispatcher who
insisted on, you know, me staying on and going, and
the folks that the first responders and the paramedics that
were there, all of that stuff, Every single one of
(19:22):
those things slotted just so. All I have is nothing
but profound gratitude for the folks.
Speaker 3 (19:27):
In the MS.
Speaker 1 (19:28):
And you can't forget about your wife, right Well, if.
Speaker 3 (19:31):
Fatfully her brain overruled my heart, Joanne, I love her.
Speaker 5 (19:38):
We've been very fortunate to have been married to my
best friend for almost thirty five years, and so she
knows me better than I know myself at times. And
if she hadn't insisted on that call, and if she
had gone ahead and just left, you'd be talking to
John and nobody else me I wouldn't be here.
Speaker 1 (19:58):
Right before we get to John's, Uh my mom, my
dad was playing tennis and came home with a He
had a slight twinge of pain in his right shoulder,
and he came home and he looked white as a ghost.
And my mom said to my dad. My dad was
very stubborn. I said, you don't look good, you don't
(20:19):
feel good. I'm gonna call nine one one. And he said, no,
you're not. I'm going upstairs, take a shower, and I'll
be fine. And my mom did not listen to him,
called nine one one. Forty some years later. That's how
I got in my That's how my MS career started.
Because of his heart attack. Wives, moms, they know, learned
not to argue with them. Going to you, John, you
(20:41):
were up on the mountain doing your skiing things. It
was a beautiful day. Go ahead, take it from there.
Speaker 6 (20:47):
It was a bluebird day, blue skies. I guy said,
I had only fragments in memory of the day. A
lot of what you know I can tell you in
the story is piecos fragments together there. But also third hand,
I've talked to a lot of the first responders who
are on the scene. Obviously my wife was with me
for a significant portion of it there, and so the
(21:10):
story that I can play out and it's it's very
much like Jim's Like, if it wasn't for the amazing
response of the first responders and the whole EMS chain
of handoff that happened that day, I wouldn't be here.
It's just incredible, right, including unlike in Jim's case, some very.
Speaker 4 (21:28):
Bad decisions that I made on that day that I
take ownership.
Speaker 6 (21:32):
So we're skiing and on a remote portion of Mount Baker,
so it's one that you just can't get down to
the bottom. You have to take a lift back up
to get over to the main launch. And I was
just tired, like I do have a fragmented memory of
pulling up and waiting for my wife.
Speaker 4 (21:49):
And generally I ski very fast and and you know,
outdoor great shape, right, And she goes, you know, how
do you like you use skis?
Speaker 6 (21:57):
And I said, oh, they're skiing really good, but I'm
really tired, like I know to do ten turns and
I'm short of breath, right, And she goes, well, what
do you want to do? And I go, well, let's,
you know, let's start heading back to the main lodge area, right.
And so we get back on the chair lift and
we're riding up and She's constantly asking me how I'm feeling,
and I'm.
Speaker 4 (22:15):
Starting to not feel good.
Speaker 6 (22:17):
You know that that feeling if you've ever had really
bad tank blood pressure, like as a bag of sincope
kind of response or something.
Speaker 4 (22:24):
By that feel of doom starts to set in.
Speaker 6 (22:28):
I didn't have any chest pain, I didn't have any
compromise or anything in the arms or whatnot, but I
just sort of had this something's not right feeling.
Speaker 4 (22:36):
Right, So we ski down and we get down to
the base, and.
Speaker 6 (22:39):
At this point in time, like my wife has to
help me get the skis off, Like I'm not really
in a condition even to bend down now to take
the skis off. And if you're familiar with Mount Baker,
right there at the White Salmon Lodge, right across the
parking lot, right there is the first aid room with
the twelve lead KG and paramedics and doctors on staff
that are there.
Speaker 4 (22:58):
Right, goes, what do you want to do?
Speaker 6 (23:02):
And I said, let's just get in the car and
drive to the hospital on Belling. Bad decision, right, I
look back on it in the day and go, man,
I just like that should have cost me my life
right there, and my wife, you know she just bless
her heart, she didn't override the decision, right, she was
(23:22):
panicked as well, and she goes, Okay, that's what we'll
do if you think that's.
Speaker 4 (23:25):
What we need to do. So we get in a
car and we start driving.
Speaker 6 (23:30):
If you're familiar with the area, it is about forty
minutes from Mount Baker down to Glacier, which is the
first town you'll hit. There is no cell phone coverage
during that whole trip, and even in the town of
Glacier there's no cell phone coverage by the time we
got to Glacier.
Speaker 4 (23:48):
And I can back up my father when he had
his heart attack.
Speaker 6 (23:51):
He was on a long distance bike ride and he
rode for forty five minutes while he knew he was
having a heart attack, and he came home to the
house and he called the am vilence and he went
in and told my mom, I'm going to go lay
down on the bed. The ambulance has going to knock
on the door, let them in. Everything's okay. So I
thought I had time, right, So we get to Glacier
(24:11):
and at this point.
Speaker 4 (24:12):
I'm really not doing good.
Speaker 6 (24:14):
I don't quite remember other than I was in severe
pain and my wife runs into a little market there,
a restaurant market called Graham's and asks if she can
borrow their landline because there's no cell phone coverage there.
It calls nine one one dispatch. They you know, tell
(24:36):
the normal protocol. Do you have any baby ass burns?
She buys some stay on the line. Luckily it was
a cordless wireless phone that she was able to take
back out to the car where I was, and within
fifteen minutes Glacier Fire Rescue was on the scene. I
do have a fragment of memory of someone saying you
are having a heart attack, right, which was sort of
(24:57):
a yeah, no kidding diagnosis.
Speaker 4 (25:02):
And then they put me in there BLS rig and.
Speaker 6 (25:10):
Started transporting me towards Bellingham. We met with an ALS
rig out of Bellingham in Maple Falls, so that's another
twenty minutes fifteen minutes to Maple Falls. By that time
I was being transferred into the ALS rig.
Speaker 4 (25:27):
At Maple Falls, I.
Speaker 6 (25:28):
Had a Lucas device on and boy, that really rips
up your chest.
Speaker 4 (25:33):
It took a whole year to come back from that one.
And then.
Speaker 6 (25:39):
Chief Josh Evans from the Glacier Fire Rescue, this was
his first day as chief.
Speaker 4 (25:44):
It was his first day on the job.
Speaker 6 (25:46):
He was the first responder that was on me and
stayed with me even into the als rig all the
way into Saint Joe's. They I think shocked me twice.
So they did have a shock of bull rhythm and
they hit me twice, but I was in full cardiac
arrest with that. Luckily the cath lab was opened, no
one was in there. They rushed me into the cat
(26:08):
lab and they immediately did full antigram and catholicization.
Speaker 4 (26:14):
The left cornary artery was completely.
Speaker 6 (26:16):
Bopped, which is above the lower anterior descending, so the
lower anterior is desending was getting nothing. Nothing on that
left side of the heart was getting anything. So they
did a full cathorization place to stent. I woke up
and the nurse goes, you had a heart attack, and
I went, yeah, I think I know that.
Speaker 4 (26:37):
That's going to be there.
Speaker 6 (26:38):
And then to this day I sort of pieced back
and go, man, what happens if I didn't make it
the glacier or man, what happens if Glacier Fire Rescue
was out on a call somewhere and wasn't there to
immediately get on top of me right, because it was
a matter of another five minutes and I'm sure I
would have been dead man.
Speaker 4 (26:57):
What if it wasn't Josh, because Josh was just you know.
Speaker 6 (26:59):
I don't remember on that day, but in talking to
people and talking to him afterwards, like the first responder
care that he gave me that day was absolutely top notch.
You know what happens if ALS there's only I think
six ALS rigs in all Walkham County, Like what happens
if there wasn't.
Speaker 4 (27:15):
An ALS ring that was ready to go right and there.
Speaker 6 (27:18):
Was what happens if someone was in the or five
five ALS ray So you know, Walkom County is a
pretty big county. You know easily that ALS rate could
have not been ready to rock and get me on
a transport. And you know that helped save my life,
if not saved my life in there, the fact that
like Job rode all the way in with me and
(27:38):
stayed on my bidles through his patient the whole ay,
you know, I think that was just amazing, amazing, amazing.
What if the cat lab had been scheduled, there was
someone in there and they had to park me and wait,
Like everything just lined up perfectly from that EMS system
on that day.
Speaker 4 (27:54):
For me, you know, regardless of the.
Speaker 6 (27:56):
Bad decision I made, everything else went perfect, right, And
so yeah, post that, you know, I've I've wasn't involved
in EMS or you know, I have my CPR certification
that you know everybody should get, but that really caused
me to sort of think about how to get back.
Speaker 4 (28:16):
So it's been a journey since twenty twenty one to.
Speaker 6 (28:19):
Get medical certifications and become part of the ski patrol
organization up at Mount Baker.
Speaker 4 (28:25):
That's it.
Speaker 1 (28:25):
And now you're a CPR instructor too, and.
Speaker 6 (28:28):
Now I'm a recent CPR instructor as well.
Speaker 1 (28:30):
Yeah, that's right. How about that?
Speaker 5 (28:33):
All right?
Speaker 1 (28:33):
Thanks, you're welcome, my pleasure, and I'll just toss this
out to both of you and you guys can think
about this because you kind of touched on it some
of it during your storyteller. First of all, again, thank
you for being here and sharing your story. This is great.
But when you think about that moment and you just
(28:54):
retold the story, what stands out the most? Was there
something after you just reached hold? This is something that
sticks out or something that just sticks in your mind?
Go ahead, John, why don't you start with that.
Speaker 6 (29:06):
Well, I think one of the biggest things that I
question of that day.
Speaker 4 (29:11):
Is of myself why I made that decision to drive
down the mountain rather than going into the first aid room.
Speaker 6 (29:18):
And since I've become involved with Mount Baker Ski Patrol,
and I know the first aid room staff that's top
notch quality, and you know there are paramedics and doctors
in there, and what they could have done for me.
And i'd walked in that door, right, and they probably
would have brought in helicopter transport rather than trying to
bring ales or BLS riggs up, so I probably would
(29:38):
have been flown down. They would have been on that
much faster right, And so I really questioned why I
made those decisions that I made right. And that's something
that I think is a message to sort of talk
to people about that there is this really strong sense
of denial, like when this event is taking place, you've
(29:59):
denied this is really happening to you, and then you
don't want to be a bother to anybody else, like
you know, oh, I can take care of myself, it
will be okay.
Speaker 4 (30:09):
Then it's not. This is not it. It's a false alarm.
Speaker 6 (30:11):
Whatever it may be forced me to make what was
ultimately a really bad decision on that day. Luckily ems
saved me from that bad decision, but you know, I
have to own up to the fact that that was
a really bad decision that I made. And you know,
if anything and talking to people, don't make that decision
that I made right, And even to my wife, like
(30:34):
never never asked the person you suspect is having a cardiac.
Speaker 4 (30:38):
Event, what you think you should do? Just take charge
and make the decision for them.
Speaker 5 (30:45):
Well, I think I certainly appreciate what John said. I
think there's a certain element in in all of us,
but I don't know that for certain time, and just
speak for how I see things at times. And it's
something that it took a long time, and during my
life as I grew and hopefully matured and learned that.
Speaker 3 (31:07):
It takes.
Speaker 5 (31:08):
Sometimes it takes courage to ask for help. Asking for help,
you have to acknowledge you can't necessarily do something on
your own. And like John said, if you're asking for help,
you're going to inconvenience somebody because that's what you think.
And so in my case, it was a if I
(31:29):
hadn't seen the partiologist and my general practitioner on a Friday,
and now we're forty eight hours later. My logical mind
is saying, this just can't be, because how could I
go in the over.
Speaker 3 (31:46):
Over a two day weekend.
Speaker 5 (31:47):
How could I go from being great to being in
desperate straits? It just doesn't make sense, Okay. But thankfully,
like John said, my wife overrode my sense of logic
and put practical thoughts to the forefront and said, let's
do this.
Speaker 3 (32:06):
And I was embarrassed.
Speaker 5 (32:08):
To bring open the door and bring the paramedics into
my house because I told them, you're this is you're
going to come and go here. I'm sorry about it
disrupting your day. So that's that sticks out, and that
they stayed with me, that the paramedics listened.
Speaker 3 (32:27):
And you know, they were in communication there.
Speaker 5 (32:30):
The strip that they hooked up showed perfectly normal cardiac know,
no evidence of the heart attack at all. And I
never did have a heart attack, you know what.
Speaker 3 (32:39):
I what happened to me. My heart went out a
rhythm and it went into that.
Speaker 5 (32:44):
I saw the strip on it afterwards, and it was
a really weird thing, as normally you just got this,
but mine were these massive loops and then just flatlined.
So I, you know, I saw what happened to me afterwards.
But it was that that acknowledgment that I needed to
set my ego aside. I needed to set my pride aside.
I needed to let somebody do their job to know
(33:07):
what that was going to entail. I told the guys
this would not I didn't start Monday morning thinking I'm
going to invite paramedics into my house. I mean, if
you want to come and have coffee with me or something, great,
but you're not going to be here to you know,
let alone have to put paddles on me multiple times
to bring me back to life. I just that wasn't
on my day. So I agree one hundred percent of John.
Speaker 3 (33:29):
You know you thankfully I never left my house.
Speaker 5 (33:34):
I mean, I and my spouse state with me and insisted.
Speaker 3 (33:37):
You know, to be through that.
Speaker 5 (33:39):
But the other thing that sticks with me is that
is the I didn't know how the EMS system respond.
Speaker 3 (33:45):
You know, where the dispatch.
Speaker 5 (33:46):
Was and you know, at the time of my event,
we had four ALS units to serve the entire county
at lockhom and that's a pretty large geographic area.
Speaker 3 (33:56):
Mine happened to come from the city.
Speaker 5 (33:58):
Of Bellingham, the Broadway State, which is you know, more
than five minutes from because I live off chuck On
and Drive and the BLS people that came, I mean,
they were professional, they were compassionate, they were caring, and
they knew their stuff. And to do that inter osteo
and my right thigh.
Speaker 3 (34:18):
You know, that stayed in my leg.
Speaker 5 (34:20):
For almost two days and it was a conversation piece
among folks at the hospital. There were professionals to work
in the hospital and said, I've worked for thirty years.
I've never seen that done on anybody. So, you know,
the person that had just taken.
Speaker 3 (34:33):
That training, I don't know what it would.
Speaker 5 (34:35):
Be like if it was you know, if I had
to put paddles onto John or you Steve, never having
done it before, it would probably be you know, as
a lay person, I would do it because I've since
taken CPR training, which I agree with John and I
plot him for being involved.
Speaker 3 (34:51):
At the skier. Everybody should have that.
Speaker 5 (34:53):
You should have to have CPR training, sechu in order
to get a driver's license. Some countries that's what you do.
But I digressed it. It's just just the fact that
these they went to that professional spot where people go
and it becomes a subconscious thing of putting their professional
skill set to work and not doubting themselves that they
(35:14):
went ahead and did it. But all of these things
came together.
Speaker 3 (35:17):
So that's the thing.
Speaker 5 (35:18):
That's so amazing is it's a system of parts and
pieces that have to come together to work right, and
we have We live in a county where these results
are among the best in the nation, and the public
needs to be needs to know more, not just John's
(35:42):
in my story, but many many others. And I've been
very blessed to meet folks who are like John and
I who have been the benefactors of this, and to
a person, they almost all say the same thing, how
grateful they are.
Speaker 3 (35:55):
They had no idea all the.
Speaker 5 (35:56):
Things that go into place to make this work.
Speaker 3 (36:00):
In John's case, we had just took we.
Speaker 5 (36:02):
Since I'm now involved with policy making on emergency medical services,
were still growing our system. But it needs that attention
and care and policymakers and others who are responsible for
the nurturing of that really have a good thing going.
(36:22):
And I'm just very grateful.
Speaker 1 (36:24):
Let's talk about your families for a moment. This kind
of event doesn't just happen to one person, It happens
to everyone around them. How did your families react in
the days and weeks after your cardiac arrests? How do
you personally process what happened emotionally and mentally? And we'll
go ahead, John, Why don't you start if you.
Speaker 6 (36:45):
Think back to that time Eebruary twenty twenty one, that
was the height of COVID.
Speaker 4 (36:51):
So my wife was forced to watch this and be
a part of it. And then she.
Speaker 6 (36:57):
Was driving behind the LS rig was parked right behind
it as they transferred me from the Laitia Fire Rescue
into the ALS ring at Maple Falls. She could see
that I was unconscious. She knew something really bad was
going on, right and uh. And then when she pulled
up to the hospital, they wouldn't let her in. She's
(37:17):
not allowed to come in. It's during the days of COVID,
and so they said, you don't have to go home
and we'll call you. And so she had a very
long period of time where she had no idea whether.
Speaker 4 (37:28):
I was alive or not, or what was going on
or what was happening. And then.
Speaker 6 (37:35):
You know, after I came out of the surgery and
was in the the you know, intensive carery in it there,
cardiac intensive care. She still was not allowed to come
visit me, so, you know, it was a long period
of time where you know, I I was on my own,
but that was okay because you know, I was still
(37:55):
recovering and all that.
Speaker 4 (37:56):
But I can only imagine what the family went through.
Speaker 6 (37:59):
Because you know, all the kids flew home here to
support her. She basically had to you know, like try
to you know, a couple of days before she could
talk to me on the phone. But she had to
go through it all remotely. She was allowed to come
in a visit, and that was that was pretty hard.
Speaker 5 (38:15):
Jim well John just said the part that I my
first thought after I became totally conscious and I'm in
the cath lab and they're running the wires threw up
through my wrists and.
Speaker 3 (38:30):
Stuff and see what's going on.
Speaker 5 (38:32):
I'm having a conversation with the folks there, and that's
when it first hit me and I lost it because
my first thought went to my son. And I saw
the son out of the corner of my eye before
I went out, so I knew he was there, but
I felt for my wife too, same thing. They you know,
she she was told that they would reach out to
(38:52):
her and let her know, but they, you know, they
weren't sure I was going to make it by the time,
you know, because I had gone into a rest a
second time, they had shot.
Speaker 3 (39:01):
Me a third time.
Speaker 5 (39:01):
So after I learned that and was able to This
was shortly after COVID, so this would have been in twenty.
Speaker 3 (39:09):
Twenty two, but they wouldn't.
Speaker 5 (39:12):
They'd only let one person at a time in, and
so my son, who had witnessed this, also could not
come and see me, So I had to talk briefly
on the phone, and they limited that too, so he
did not have a full story. Neither of them knew
what the downstream consequences were.
Speaker 3 (39:28):
Going to be, if there were any, So that was hard.
Speaker 5 (39:32):
And you know, like like John said, you're by yourself.
You weren't being you were in a place of care,
So that was fine.
Speaker 3 (39:38):
Mentally, that was okay.
Speaker 5 (39:41):
Then to go along with your question Steve about that
the cardiac rehab program at Saint Jose's, I think is
a good program for the physical component of that. What
they don't have is anything for the mental side of things.
So in when I was going going through three days
(40:01):
a week for twelve weeks, so that's thirty six sessions
of cardia agria.
Speaker 3 (40:05):
I've never missed a day.
Speaker 5 (40:07):
I got to meet other folks variety of reasons. Some
had heart attack, some had stance put in that but
they were eight. Otherwise they were perfectly fine. And some
of them, some of those people were afraid to go
to sleep at night, that they would never wake up.
If they go to sleep, they would die. They didn't
want to talk to their family about anything. You know,
(40:28):
the story I had of post death you know experience.
You know, I'm not alone in that, but it's not
you know, it's my story. Other people have their own
story and they were some of them afraid to share
that because people look at you like you've lost your mind.
Speaker 3 (40:43):
That just can't be, you know.
Speaker 5 (40:44):
So the mental health component of that for not only
folks like John and I who had the experience personally,
but the family and others surrounding that we were.
Speaker 3 (40:58):
I was invited up to Baker area because there was.
Speaker 5 (41:04):
Another success story with somebody who had who was skiing
downhill and a tourist was going up on the left
and watched this person fall over and just didn't look right.
Speaker 3 (41:14):
That was a success.
Speaker 5 (41:15):
So I was talking to this person's spouse and I asked.
Speaker 3 (41:20):
Her how she was doing it.
Speaker 5 (41:21):
She's she broke down because she says, everybody is paying
attention to my husband, and rightly so he's the one
that suffered the event, but the rest of us you
are dealing with the fallout. I would much rather be
the victim than the than the witness, you know, because
it you know, to watch somebody you love.
Speaker 3 (41:42):
Not good.
Speaker 5 (41:43):
So I would hope that our system pays some attention
to the mental health component, not just for folks like me,
but also our family members. And then God bless the
first responder. Somebody who is volunteering gets a call and
shows up and then you know, does their thing and
then goes home. It doesn't know what happens until maybe
(42:04):
two or three days later. It's just all all of
the human condition that makes each person special is also
something that's very fragile and and take a lot of
work to get through.
Speaker 1 (42:21):
John, you've become something voice for cardiac awareness and survival
from sharing your story. What message do you hope people
take away from hearing your story?
Speaker 6 (42:33):
Well, those are the conversations that I also have with
my boys.
Speaker 4 (42:37):
So one, just because when you the first time a
doctor says you have high.
Speaker 6 (42:42):
Cholesterol, your like spidey sense and antennas need to go up.
Speaker 4 (42:46):
Don't ignore that.
Speaker 6 (42:47):
You need to start making life decisions, even if you're
twenty years old, right, because it's not going to get better.
There's a family history here, don't ignore it and just
you know, figure out whatever lifestyle way you want to
manage that.
Speaker 4 (43:00):
But don't ignore that issue. Right.
Speaker 6 (43:02):
Ultimately I did, and that's where it got me in
this issue that's going to be here too.
Speaker 4 (43:09):
You know, we talked about that, you know.
Speaker 6 (43:13):
A commonality between Jim and I where we were both
in a point of sort of denial or not wanting
to ask.
Speaker 4 (43:19):
For help or whatever it may be.
Speaker 6 (43:23):
That's that's burning precious time, right, that's going to be there.
And events can I mean, I think someone who people
who've never been through a cardiac event like this don't
realize how fast it can go south, so fast it
falls off a cliff.
Speaker 4 (43:40):
Like you are here.
Speaker 6 (43:41):
At one point, you're having a conversation with the paramedics
who are at your door, and the next thing you know,
you're on a journey and you're going down.
Speaker 4 (43:48):
Right.
Speaker 6 (43:48):
In my case, I was like, oh, we can make
it to billing him. We can make this drive and
within a matter of you know, fifteen minutes, so I'm
in full cardiac distress right and another ten I'm in
full cardiac arrest.
Speaker 4 (44:00):
It goes south very very fast. So don't be afraid
to reach out. Just you know, if it's a false,
false lead, or if it's if.
Speaker 6 (44:09):
It's not what you you know it could be, then
no harm dead.
Speaker 4 (44:12):
You know. Being part of the Mount Baker.
Speaker 6 (44:15):
Ski patrol, this we roll up on people who are
hurt all the.
Speaker 4 (44:19):
Time and they're like, no, we'll just ski down. We'll
take care of ourselves. You know, we don't want to
trouble anybody.
Speaker 6 (44:26):
And I have this conversation with them, trying to explain
to them there's a patroller at the top of the
mountains sitting bump in a hut board out of their mind,
who's going through a ton of training and lives.
Speaker 4 (44:38):
For this right now, right they are they're you know.
Speaker 6 (44:42):
Not wishing ill on anybody, but you're going to make
their day that they get to come down and.
Speaker 4 (44:48):
You know, practice their art and their skill and help you. Right,
that's why they're up here. That's why they're in this business.
That's why they are first responders. Right.
Speaker 6 (44:57):
It is a taxing job, is a mentally difficult job
for them, but it's also when they score a success.
It's you know, I remember when I had the conversation
with Chief Josh and the Mount Baker parking lot a
year later, where I said, hey, man, it's almost a
day a year, you know, to this day, it's almost
(45:17):
a to this day that you guys saved my life.
And he goes, oh, you're the dude with the new
Jersey license plates.
Speaker 4 (45:27):
Yes, yes, I am going to me, but thank you.
Speaker 6 (45:31):
You know, I could just see the whole Glacier fire
rescue crew that was there.
Speaker 4 (45:35):
They were just all tackled pink that, you know, like
they knew that that was a success. So they knew
they hit it out of the park that day.
Speaker 6 (45:41):
So don't be afraid to call nine one one, you know,
that's that would be My big counsel is is get
help and get.
Speaker 4 (45:49):
Help fast if you think something's going on.
Speaker 1 (45:53):
Jim, you now starve on the EMS servisight board here
in the county. You also are very heavily involved in
the president's share of the MS Foundation of Walcome County
EMS Foundation. That's a remarkable way to give back. What
might have atee you to get involved both in the
EOB as well as getting involved in the foundation and
(46:14):
what's the mission of the foundation?
Speaker 3 (46:17):
Well, thank you for asking about that.
Speaker 5 (46:19):
So the foundation came about as a result of my
event and out of a profound sense of I would
say gratitude. In our house, we have one word on
the wall when you come in. It's a metal sculpture,
but it says the word gratitude on it. We've had
(46:40):
that up for many, many years because I tend to
feel that the metre of fact that you know, anybody
can breathe and take a breath and.
Speaker 3 (46:51):
Enjoy the sunrise in the morning.
Speaker 5 (46:53):
Despite life's challenges and stuff.
Speaker 3 (46:55):
You know has their heads screwed, honestly, reasonably straight. You
have a sense of gratitude for just what is.
Speaker 5 (47:01):
So that was instilled in me as a young child,
and it doesn't imunize yourself from life's challenges. It doesn't
mean you you get a pass because you have that appreciation.
Speaker 3 (47:13):
For just everyday things in life.
Speaker 5 (47:16):
But out of that sense, when you have something like this,
there's a there's a there was at least a need
in my case to be able to say thank you
in a in a in a meaningful way, a visible way.
Speaker 3 (47:28):
What can I do?
Speaker 5 (47:29):
And so I asked the person that came in to
check on me. I said, I want to thank the
firefighters and the paramedics that saved my life. I mean,
what do you say to somebody that saved your life?
How many times does that happen in a day? You know,
most of most of us probably hopefully won't have that experience.
I mean hopefully we you know, ideal and we all
(47:50):
live to be whatever age we do, and we go
to sleep and everybody, you know, you come into the
world crying, and everybody when you leave, they're just they're
thrilled to death. You had such a great life. You
include it so well. But in this case, I asked
about that, and I said, I want to thank the folks.
And I said, at least let me make my family
and I make a financial contribution to the foundation.
Speaker 3 (48:11):
Well we don't have one.
Speaker 5 (48:13):
Well, I've set them up in other communities before, different
types and stuff.
Speaker 3 (48:16):
And I said, well, then let's do that.
Speaker 5 (48:18):
So that's the foundation the genesis of that was out
of a profound sense of gratitude knowing that the way
the MS system operates in Whatcom and on other communities
in the state of Washington, under the laws and governing
in this systems, there's other things that that are helpful
to the men and women that work in the MS
(48:39):
that the that the system itself cannot do by law
because it's not possible or the funding just isn't there
to do all the things that keep people in good space.
So meeting with the folks at the Broadway station in Bellingham,
you know that that apparently just didn't doesn't happen very often.
I don't know why should, but at least in my case,
(49:02):
it was really really important for me to close that
loop and to tell the folks, you know, thank you.
I mean, you know, I it just seems hollow just
to say thank you, thank you, thank you for saying
in my life. I mean, isn't there something else you
could say or do? And most of them to a
person to their credits that we're just doing our job,
(49:23):
and they use the word just, you know, just doing
our job. Well, that's what a professional would say. That's
of course, that's what they do. But on the receiving end,
that's it's not that the just portion of that isn't
isn't enough.
Speaker 3 (49:35):
And I said.
Speaker 5 (49:36):
You by allowing me and others to thank you, you
are you are allowing us to do something that's part
of our recovery. So that's the gen. The mission of
the foundation is to to support those initiatives that advance
pre hospital care.
Speaker 3 (49:55):
That's it in a nutshell.
Speaker 1 (49:56):
So both of your stories are my I under the
sudden cardiac arrest doesn't discriminate. It can happen to anyone,
anytime and anywhere. I'll give you an opportunity, both of
you to have any kind of closing statements or something
that you might just want to say to the public
or to the MS providers out there. By John, you
(50:18):
can start.
Speaker 6 (50:19):
Yeah, I sort of alluded to this already that I
feel like somewhat lucky that the chain of care just
played in my favorite that day, right, But I don't
think it was an accident, you know, listening to Jim
and listening to everything else, all the training that everybody
brought to the table that day, and the quality of
(50:40):
care that I got, and the handoffs that happened I
had personally a fantastic experience in the cardiac I see
you during recoverage. The nurses were fantastic, The level of
care was fantastic.
Speaker 4 (50:54):
You know, the als.
Speaker 6 (50:55):
I was unconscious during that period of time, but you
know they were there and they were well trained and
they did what they do. Glacier Fire Rescue hands down.
Speaker 4 (51:05):
Saved my life by coming on the scene.
Speaker 6 (51:07):
Jim had already mentioned the cardiac rehab program at Saint Jose,
so I'm a graduate of that thirty six week program
as well, and I will echo exactly what Jim said,
the level of professionalism. When Jim was saying, there's people
in there who are afraid they're not going to wake up.
The next morning, I walked around with a cardiac monitor
(51:28):
on my chest because I was afraid that my heart
was just going to stop beating at any moment for weeks, right,
And so going through that program not only got me
better back into conditioning. Had a picture on the wall
of a past patient who had a heart attack and
went through their program and then won a golden medal
in some big growing competition, and I was like, man,
(51:50):
that's going to be me.
Speaker 4 (51:52):
I'm going to be that person, right, But.
Speaker 6 (51:55):
As Jim said, it was having peers going through that
and even professional people who work there and with you
just it was cathargic. It helped heal my mind as
much as it helped heal my body as well. So
my closing statement, the level of care from the first
responder all the way through to the rehab afterwards and
(52:15):
everybody involved was such a high degree of quality professionalism
that I can't have enough good things to say.
Speaker 4 (52:23):
I'm glad we've moved about ampire.
Speaker 1 (52:25):
James, you had a closing statement, Yeah, I.
Speaker 3 (52:29):
Saw, I think you know. John said it very very well.
Speaker 5 (52:32):
Here's what I would Here's what I would put out
there for folks when something works. Well, maybe you listening
to this will never be where John ra I or
others of us have been. Okay, maybe you will never
need their services. Well, like you said, Steve, most of
(52:54):
the time when people understand, for example, that they're having
a heart attack is usually after their death and the
one thing, and there are other emergencies, so this is.
Speaker 3 (53:05):
Not just about cardiac arrest.
Speaker 5 (53:08):
That being said, the one thing that most als systems
are able to measure objectively is their response to cardiac
events and the success rates that oftentimes follow like in John's.
Speaker 3 (53:24):
In my case, Watcom County.
Speaker 5 (53:28):
Has one of the best success rates for SCA sunen
cardiac arrest survival not only in Washington State but throughout
the United States. And that did not happen by accident.
It's not the water here, it's not the climate that
makes it successful. It's the folks that are behind the
scenes doing the work. But more importantly, it's the public
(53:52):
that voted to approve a levy and tax themselves the
als system. When things work well and they don't make
headlines because you know, there wasn't an eight car available,
so somebody died, or it took too long to get
there before, somebody wasn't trained. We don't have those kinds
(54:14):
of stories here, and so when you have nothing but
successes heartful.
Speaker 1 (54:20):
Thank you to both of you for sharing your stories
with me, and thank you again. And that'll wrap up
this episode of Medical Medic Podcast. Join me next time.
If you want to reach me, you can reach me
at medically Medic Podcasts at gmail dot com. You can
find this podcast on Podbean, Apple podcast as well as Spotify,
(54:43):
Speaker dot com, and of course my Facebook page. Until
next time. This is Steve Cohen saying stay safe, tell
everybody to take a good CPR course. Thanks, thanks James,
thanks John.
Speaker 6 (54:56):
Thank you jam thank you. Yes, hopefully we'll see each
other again
Popular Podcasts
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!
Ruthie's Table 4
For more than 30 years The River Cafe in London, has been the home-from-home of artists, architects, designers, actors, collectors, writers, activists, and politicians. Michael Caine, Glenn Close, JJ Abrams, Steve McQueen, Victoria and David Beckham, and Lily Allen, are just some of the people who love to call The River Cafe home. On River Cafe Table 4, Rogers sits down with her customers—who have become friends—to talk about food memories. Table 4 explores how food impacts every aspect of our lives. “Foods is politics, food is cultural, food is how you express love, food is about your heritage, it defines who you and who you want to be,” says Rogers. Each week, Rogers invites her guest to reminisce about family suppers and first dates, what they cook, how they eat when performing, the restaurants they choose, and what food they seek when they need comfort. And to punctuate each episode of Table 4, guests such as Ralph Fiennes, Emily Blunt, and Alfonso Cuarón, read their favourite recipe from one of the best-selling River Cafe cookbooks. Table 4 itself, is situated near The River Cafe’s open kitchen, close to the bright pink wood-fired oven and next to the glossy yellow pass, where Ruthie oversees the restaurant. You are invited to take a seat at this intimate table and join the conversation. For more information, recipes, and ingredients, go to https://shoptherivercafe.co.uk/ Web: https://rivercafe.co.uk/ Instagram: www.instagram.com/therivercafelondon/ Facebook: https://en-gb.facebook.com/therivercafelondon/ For more podcasts from iHeartRadio, visit the iheartradio app, apple podcasts, or wherever you listen to your favorite shows. Learn more about your ad-choices at https://www.iheartpodcastnetwork.com
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.