Defibrillator Makes the Difference in Connecticut Rescue
Sep. 26--STAMFORD -- Police used a defibrillator to keep a man alive early Sunday, marking the first time officers saved someone's life with the machines since obtaining them after nearly a decade of wrangling over their cost.
The life-saving devices came in handy at about 1:30 a.m. Sunday, when a 61-year-old city man's heart jumped out of rhythm after he danced the polka at a party at Holy Name of Jesus Church on Washington Boulevard, police said.
The man, who has not been identified, "basically suffered sudden death," said Dr. Gregory D'Onofrio, a cardiologist with Heart Physicians, a group that consults with Stamford Hospital.
Three of the man's arteries were clogged, D'Onofrio said.
City legislators and cardiac doctors had lobbied for police to carry the machines starting in the late 1990s, because officers often arrive at emergencies before paramedics.
But the program never began after budget experts, using inaccurate information about training requirements, said it could cost up to $1 million to train officers.
After learning in 2005 that officers needed only a few hours of training, the department spent about $70,000 to train nearly 200 officers and purchased 30 defibrillators.
Early Sunday, Officers Troy Judge and Ryan McAllister arrived at Holy Name Church minutes before paramedics, said Lt. Sean Cooney, a police spokesman. They found the man unconscious.
Judge performed CPR while McAllister retrieved the defibrillator from the trunk, Cooney said. They placed the machine's patches over the victim's chest and administered a shock.
The man was conscious by the time he arrived at Stamford Hospital, D'Onofrio said. Doctors stabilized his breathing, found the clogged arteries and sent the man for an angioplasty Monday at Bridgeport Hospital, he said. The man is expected to make a full recovery.
Almost all patients die or suffer severe brain damage if they do not receive a shock in the first 10 minutes in a crisis, experts said.
"We're so proud that our policemen can now save the lives of good guys as well as catching bad guys," said Edward Schuster, a cardiologist who pushed the city to buy the machines for nearly a decade.
Schuster and other experts have said the machines are easy enough for children to use. They talk people through the instructions and do not allow a shock to be administered if the patient does not need one.
But several state health officials initially said officers needed at least 40 hours of training to use the machines -- the same amount required for all emergency "first responders."
That could have cost the city $500,000 to $1 million, since the department usually pays officers overtime for training.
The family of a Stamford police sergeant who died after suffering a heart attack at police headquarters in December 2004 is suing the city because there was no defibrillator nearby.
Officials from the state Office of Emergency Medical Services ruled that police need only seven to 10 hours of training, since they are not first responders in Stamford. Firefighters are classified as first responders.
The first wave of training cost the city $70,000, and it paid off.
"These officers saved this man's life," D'Onofrio said.
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