2009 Code Saves by The Omaha Fire Department

On February 19, 2010, members of The Omaha Fire Department had the chance to meet with code save survivors from 2009.
In 2009, OFD crews saved 32 victims of cardiac arrest.
Reprint from Feb. 20, 2010 Omaha World-Herald article is below:

Norman Foster Jr. was dead.
Friday, he took time to thank the people who reversed that condition.
The Omaha man came to the Methodist Hospital Cancer Center to help mark the 32 successful resuscitations from cardiac arrest by Omaha fire crews and hospital workers in 2009.
?They gave me a second chance at life,? Foster said. ?I was actually dead 10 minutes. The Fire Department, with their diligence, kept at it, and now I?m here.?

In 2008, 15 people were successfully resuscitated and left hospitals ?neurologically intact,? Omaha Fire Chief Mike McDonnell said. In 2009, that number more than doubled, a statistic McDonnell attributed to the teamwork between the Omaha Fire Department and local hospitals.
The department and hospital representatives held the event to note American Heart Month.
Dwayne Donahoo recounted how he had collapsed at a farm show at the Qwest Center Omaha. If he had been home at his farm near Elkhorn, he speculated, results might have been fatal.
?They saved my life,? Donahoo said simply.
Gerald Starks, who just celebrated his 43rd birthday, said he wanted to thank the department and Methodist Hospital for saving his life.
?I felt it was the least I could do ? they?re letting me see my kids every day ? to say thank you,? he said.
David E. Whitney of Omaha was on a Meals on Wheels delivery when he was stricken. He posed for pictures Friday with the first responders who saved his life.
?I was gone, and they brought me back,? he said.
Adrian Alvarez, who collapsed while acting as auctioneer at his church auction, spoke about the importance of CPR education and the need for more automated external defibrillators in large establishments. His fellow church members, including doctors and a surgical nurse, performed CPR until the first responders arrived.
?They had to do CPR for 12 to 15 minutes, is my understanding, keeping me alive, and if they didn?t know what they were doing, I don?t think they could have lasted that long,? he said.
?Two to 5 percent of us survive this,? he continued. ?We need to get that number bigger, and you do that by education ... It can?t just be on (the Fire Department).?
Fire Department spokesman Capt. Jim Gentile said it meant a lot to firefighters to hear the survivors? words.
?As a firefighter, your first priority is trying to help people,? he said. ?So when you see someone who?s gone through something that traumatic, and then two months later they?re standing in front of you, you know you did what was right and did your job. That?s what the whole thing?s about, trying to help people, so it means a lot.?
Mayor Jim Suttle attended the event and offered his compliments to the fire crews.
?We are going to continue to have a first-class public safety program in this wonderful city,? he said.
Contact the writer:
444-1074, john.keenan@owh.com

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