For 10 minutes, Dan Boow was dead. A month after a massive heart attack that left him without any vital signs, Boow and his partner Sherry Polkosnik met the paramedics who revived him.
According to Polkosnik, it was a traumatic experience watching someone and there is nothing that you can do. The reunion at Devonshire Mall where Essex-Windsor EMS was organized as part of the Paramedic Services Week.
One of the paramedics was Jeff Culver. He and his partner were heading back to the station in LaSalle last month when they received a call on someone experiencing chest pain.
Timely call
Polkosnik and Boow were watching TV when he felt heavy in the chest. He asked her to call for emergency assistance. The emergency team arrived on the scene in no time. He was placed in a chair to be taken outside and he could not remember anything after.
Boow could not recall anything since he flat-lined. According to Culver, he was on the phone getting the hospital ready for their arrival when his partner called him outside since Boow suddenly collapsed.
Proper management
The paramedics performed CPR to keep the blood moving followed by a defibrillator to restart the heart. It took 8-10 minutes to bring back the patient. Boow was rushed to the healthcare facility. Polkosnik watched as the ambulance pulled away and she later learned that Boow flat-lined again in the ambulance.
The longer a person has no pulse, the less likely to effectively resuscitate him/her. In case you are going to resuscitate a person, he/she is not likely to have a normal life after.
According to Boow, he has not felt this good for a long time. He remembers waking up in a healthcare facility.
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LEARN MORE
Learn how to help by enrolling in a course on first aid and CPR and for more information, check out these sources:
https://www.nhs.uk/conditions/heart-attack