Butch Gibbs
On April 2, 2004, I was getting ready for our annual community play which was to be held that night and the next night. The first night went well. The play ended a little after 9:00pm and as the play ended, I started having chest pain. Not long after arriving home, I went into sudden cardiac arrest and the CHAIN OF SURVIVAL began---
After the 20-mile trip by ambulance to the local Emergency Room and a helicopter ride to Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, I was hospitalized for eight days. I walked out of the hospital with my own little defibrillator implanted in my chest—and it saved my life in January of 2012.
A lot of things have happened since then---things I would not have been able to see without the efforts of Susie, Amy, the Wayne County Sheriff Dispatcher (my co-worker, Susan), the Humeston First Responders (who all passed that night’s “CPR class” with flying colors and had their second “save” in less than a year), the Lucas County Ambulance crew (Steve & Barry), the Lucas County Health Center ER crew ( Dr. Hoch, Kim, Patty, and others), the Mercy One helicopter (Lowell, Terry, & Jim), and the doctors and nurses at Mercy Hospital Medical Center and the Iowa Heart Center. All of these people (the majority of them I knew and they knew me) worked together that night to save my life!!
Now, along with teaching numerous CPR/AED classes to local groups, we have lobbied lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and Des Moines for funds to provide AEDs for rural areas where the arrival of an ambulance can be lengthy and for places where large groups of people gather. We helped raise money and obtain grants to purchase AEDs for all the school buildings and law enforcement cars in Wayne County and for other area locations, helped get a law passed requiring all students in Iowa schools to take a CPR class before they can graduate, and provided all the instruction to students and staff at our county’s schools. We become American Heart Association volunteers in activities relating to CPR and AED awareness and were honored to be named the AHA Central Iowa Volunteers of the Year in 2014.
Susie and I believe there is a reason I survived---and that reason is to help spread awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and to show the importance of knowing how to do CPR and how to use an AED so that others may have the same chance at survival that I did.
- Link #1**EARLY ACCESS** my wife, Susie, had already called the ambulance when the chest pain continued and even before I collapsed.
- Link #2**EARLY CPR** Susie immediately started CPR while my daughter, Amy, called to tell EMS this was no longer a “chest pain” call---it was now a “CPR-in-progress” call.
- Link #3**EARLY DEBFIBRILLATION** The Humeston First Responders (of which Susie & I are Co-Presidents) arrived in just three minutes and administered the first shock less than a minute later. The shocks would bring my pulse back for a short time, but then it would stop again.
- Link #4**EARLY ADVANCED CARE** The Lucas County Ambulance arrived about 20 minutes later. The Paramedic began the cardiac drugs. Soon—after CPR, 22 AED shocks, and the cardiac drugs---my heartbeat was back to stay!
After the 20-mile trip by ambulance to the local Emergency Room and a helicopter ride to Mercy Hospital Medical Center in Des Moines, Iowa, I was hospitalized for eight days. I walked out of the hospital with my own little defibrillator implanted in my chest—and it saved my life in January of 2012.
A lot of things have happened since then---things I would not have been able to see without the efforts of Susie, Amy, the Wayne County Sheriff Dispatcher (my co-worker, Susan), the Humeston First Responders (who all passed that night’s “CPR class” with flying colors and had their second “save” in less than a year), the Lucas County Ambulance crew (Steve & Barry), the Lucas County Health Center ER crew ( Dr. Hoch, Kim, Patty, and others), the Mercy One helicopter (Lowell, Terry, & Jim), and the doctors and nurses at Mercy Hospital Medical Center and the Iowa Heart Center. All of these people (the majority of them I knew and they knew me) worked together that night to save my life!!
Now, along with teaching numerous CPR/AED classes to local groups, we have lobbied lawmakers in Washington, D.C. and Des Moines for funds to provide AEDs for rural areas where the arrival of an ambulance can be lengthy and for places where large groups of people gather. We helped raise money and obtain grants to purchase AEDs for all the school buildings and law enforcement cars in Wayne County and for other area locations, helped get a law passed requiring all students in Iowa schools to take a CPR class before they can graduate, and provided all the instruction to students and staff at our county’s schools. We become American Heart Association volunteers in activities relating to CPR and AED awareness and were honored to be named the AHA Central Iowa Volunteers of the Year in 2014.
Susie and I believe there is a reason I survived---and that reason is to help spread awareness of sudden cardiac arrest and to show the importance of knowing how to do CPR and how to use an AED so that others may have the same chance at survival that I did.
