LIFE-SAVING ACTIONS
Quick Response By Danielle Borix And Tim Yee With An Automated External Defibrillator Helped Save The Life Of A Man Who Collapsed From A Heart Attack During A Valentine’s Day Feast And Round Dance At The Indian And Metis Friendship Centre In Saskatoon.
A lucky Saskatoon man has a new reason to love Valentine’s Day.
His heart stopped beating and he collapsed at a round dance at the Indian and Metis Friendship Centre Wednesday night but was revived by a collection of strangers.
Tim Yee, manager of the antihomelessness program at the downtown community centre, and Danielle Borix, a caseworker in the program, were volunteering at the annual feast and round dance honouring youth.
They were called to help at about 11:30 p.m. and took over from at least two people who had been participating in the dance and who first stepped in when the unidentified, 65-year-old man fell to the floor.
The first two had already determined that the man had no pulse, Yee recalled on Friday. One was already doing chest compressions when Yee came into the gymnasium from the outer lounge and another person was calling 911.
There were about 250 people still at the event and the man’s daughter was crying and desperate for someone to help him, Borix said.
She remembers feeling unusually calm as she knelt beside the man and began giving mouth-tomouth breathing while Yee, who had taken over from the other woman, did chest compressions.
“I just knew. I said we have to breathe in his mouth and I started,” Borix said. “We couldn’t find a pulse or anything for about three minutes. He wasn’t breathing and no pulse.”
An unidentified woman took the automated external defibrillator (AED) that Yee had brought and applied the sticky paddles to the man’s chest, Yee said.
A readout on the device, which monitors the heart, said “shock recommended,” so they followed instructions and then did another round of CPR, Borix said.
“I breathed into his mouth and he just got a big breath of air and started breathing again.”
Yee and Borix estimate they did CPR for six to eight minutes.
Moments later, police, firefighters and ambulance paramedics arrived and transferred the man to hospital.
“We just got word today that the data from the (AED machine that was used) showed he had cardiac arrest and that he didn’t have a heartbeat. Basically, he had died for two minutes,” Borix said. “We saved him.”
Borix is grateful she had the training to know what to do and she encourages other to take the training too.
“It can be critical in a situation like that,” she said.
Saskatoon police officers had arrived ready to use an AED they had, but found that members of the public had successfully administered CPR and used the AED to save the man’s life, Const. Ryan Ehalt said in an email.
“There is no doubt that the actions of these two bystanders saved this man’s life,” Ehalt wrote.
The man is recovering in hospital.
Basically, he had died for two minutes. We saved him.