N.C. EMTs Bring One of Their Own Back to Life

Feb. 16--When on duty, emergency medical technicians are ready to rush to an emergency scene.

But they were shocked on Oct. 24 when the emergency happened in their own office at Lenoir Memorial Hospital.

Paramedic Tim Byrd, 46, had eaten his breakfast and about 9 a.m. was preparing an answer key for a final test for his students. Byrd teaches classes, such as CPR and advanced cardiac life support, for the EMTs in the Emergency Department.

"I got to question 13 and after that," he said, "I have no recollection."

Steve Johnson, another paramedic and one of Byrd's students, was sitting a few feet away keying a report into a computer. The two have worked together for close to 20 years.

"He just un-naturally fell back against the wall," Johnson said about Byrd. He called out to him, but there was no response.

At once, Byrd's student was put to the ultimate test with his teacher.

"I tried to rouse him, shake him or something and there was no response," Johnson said, adding his first thought was maybe he was having a stroke or his sugar was low.

But Byrd had just eaten and didn't have a medical history that would indicate those problems.

Byrd had no pulse and wasn't breathing. Johnson laid him on the floor, moved him out of the small office into hallway and called for help from nearby emergency personnel. He and Greg Harper, a security guard, lifted him onto a gurney.

At first, Johnson rubbed Johnson's sternum, but there was no response. He opened his airway, which was clear, and began CPR compressions.

Beverly Dawson, the emergency department's nurse manager, arrived for work right about then and was told an emergency code was called.

"I just remember running," she said.

And then she saw Johnson performing CPR on Byrd. With still no response from Byrd, Dawson took over.

"Everything I learned from him," she said, "I just felt like I've got to get him back."

Dawson, too, has known Byrd for about 20 years. She used the defibrillator on him. On the third try, Byrd woke up.

He had been clinically dead for about two minutes, but to Dawson and Johnson it seemed like an eternity.

"I can remember just panicking because nothing was happening," Dawson said. When Byrd awakened, she felt a tremendous relief and a rush of tears, she said, beginning to tear up as she talked about it.

Johnson said, "In a nutshell, I could not believe this was happening."

Dawson said she kept talking to Byrd to make sure he was OK, and Byrd, who was by then medicated, was responding and even gave the thumbs up.

East Care flew him to Vidant Medical Center in Greenville where a number of tests were performed.

But Byrd doesn't recall any part of his life-threatening experience. It was only recently that he put his ordeal on paper.

"I don't remember anything from question 13 to six hours later waking up in Greenville," he said.

Byrd had another episode at Vidant. He saw an electrophysiologist at the East Carolina Heart Institute and was told he had sudden cardiac arrest, a condition of the heart that is basically an electrical anomaly that is usually fatal within minutes.

There are 400,000 cases in the U.S. a year and an 8 percent survival rate, Byrd said.

Most people who have sudden cardiac arrest have some coronary heart disease and possibly have had silent heart attacks, but no symptoms, and men are three times more likely to have it, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute.

Byrd said he was bedridden until physicians inserted a defibrillator the size of a match box in his chest, and it's expected to last 10 years.

Referring to his co-workers as family, Byrd said he was most impressed with them, not only because they continually checked on him and offered a helping hand, but because of their caring assistance to his wife, children and other family members. Dr. Aaron Cotten, the emergency medical director for LMH was one of the physicians who visited him.

It wasn't until Jan. 5 that he was able to return to work.

"In three short months, I've learned not to take everything for granted," he said, "and to just pace myself."

What Johnson said he takes away from the experience is the importance of CPR chest compressions.

"I hope a lot of people learn CPR," he said.

CPR and other health-related safety courses are offered through Lenoir Community College's Continuing Education program. For information, call 527-6223, ext. 146.

Margaret Fisher can be reached at 252-559-1082 or Margaret.Fisher@Kinston.com. Follow her on Twitter @MargaretFishr.

Copyright 2015 - The Free Press, Kinston, N.C.