Off-duty nurse saves wedding guest

OFF-DUTY NURSE SAVES WEDDING GUEST WITH CPR

By recognising agonal breathing and immediately administering CPR, nurse Kelly Ann saved the life of her fellow guest at a recent wedding

Nurse Kelly Ann McCabe went from wedding guest to hero when she saved the bride’s uncle from near certain death as he went into cardiac arrest.

And she highlighted the importance of ordinary members of the public being trained in CPR and recognising the signs of a cardiac arrest so they too might become a life-saver one day.

The 30-year-old staff nurse in St Luke’s General Hospital had travelled to Ennis from Kilkenny on October 2nd, looking forward to a day of relaxation and celebration for her neighbour’s wedding.

During the pre-reception drinks at the hotel in Ennis, Kelly Ann and her partner Mark noticed a man stumbling and falling. Soon after, there was noticeable panic and somebody shouted if there was a medic in the room.

“Mark told me to go over and see if I could help. I ran to the man but it is so difficult to assess somebody without any patient history. It is like being put into a situation blindfolded. But I could tell from him that he wasn’t looking great,” explained Kelly Ann, pictured above.

She got him down on the floor and knew instinctively to put him on his back.

“Another person, a volunteer medic, came to assist me. After a few seconds, he said that we didn’t need to perform CPR because the man was breathing but I knew something wasn’t right. I recognised that he was doing what is known as agonal breathing. It sounds almost like a snore and is a sure sign that a person is struggling to get oxygen in. So I

went with my gut and said I needed to start chest compressions,” she said.

An ambulance was called but was some time away so a community responder was dispatched to the scene. The duty manager in the hotel ran to get a defibrillator in the centre of the town.

“It felt like an eternity doing the compressions. When the AED (defibrillator) arrived, I gave the patient three shocks and then he became alert. I can’t explain the relief I felt when the AED was attached and it gave the message to shock the patient," she said. "I am a trained nurse but you start to question your own judgement in situation like this. I had no access to any monitoring so it was all done on instinct."

The ambulance arrived and the paramedics took over the care of the man, who was by now alert and doing a lot better.

“The emotion of it all just got the better of me. I was in a total state of shock and was trembling. The family were so grateful and kept saying how thankful they were that I was there. But I was so uncomfortable with the praise and was still so uncertain if I had done everything I should have done,” said Kelly Ann.

A few days later, the man was still on her mind. She contacted the bride to see if there was any news.

“She told me that her uncle was feeling much better and he was getting an ICD (Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator) fitted to prevent another cardiac arrest. I was so relieved to hear that,” she said.

“He himself sent me a lovely message and the family have sent me a lovely card thanking me. "He said he is not a religious person but something about a guardian angel stood out to him during the wedding ceremony and he insists that I was his on the day.”

Kelly Ann, who only qualified as a nurse two years ago, said that anyone with CPR training could find themselves saving someone’s life.

“It just takes one person with the right training to be in the right place to make a real difference. It is so important that people know what to do in these situations and how to recognise when someone needs CPR," she said. "If my story can teach just a few people about agonal breathing and when to recognise it, then I will be just delighted.”

Kelly Ann hopes to visit the patient soon as he continues on his road to recovery and he is looking forward to properly meeting his ‘guardian angel’.

Putting survival at the heart of the community

Alan Coughlan, NAS Paramedic; Dr Martin Holohan; Martin Walley, Cork Lions Club; and Jonathan Lynch, NAS Community Engagement Officer; pictured recently at an AED location, St Luke’s Cross, Cork city.

When an individual suffers a cardiac arrest in the community, minutes matter in order to try and save that person’s life. The public has a vital role to play in responding to these emergencies and so too do HSE staff (both when on and off duty). So how can we save more lives among those who experience an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest? International evidence shows that the following four simple steps known as the’ Chain of Survival’ are key to saving lives after an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest. The four steps are simple and can be implemented by any member of the public, supported over the phone by the National Ambulance Service (NAS) 112/999 team. • Early recognition of a cardiac arrest, calling 112/999 immediately for support throughout the resuscitation • Start immediate CPR (supported by NAS staff over the phone) • Early AED use (over the phone NAS staff will point to the closest location for an

AED) • Effective advanced Emergency Medical Service support and post resuscitation care

How are we doing in Ireland?

“We are fortunate in Ireland to have one of the best bystander CPR rates worldwide. The Irish public are great at responding when a life is at stake particularly in phoning 112/999 and starting CPR. This public response is due to trojan work by many committed organisations over the last decade,” said Jonathan Lynch NAS Community Engagement Officer (South) and Bridget Clarke, NAS Lead, Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest Strategy & Specialist Programmes. “Actions like the introduction of community first responder groups, public training, awareness campaigns and changes in how the NAS call-take, dispatch and respond to calls has resulted in big improvements in CPR rates and as a result - enhanced patient survival.”

We can still do better and we can save more lives – how?

Improving access to and the availability of AEDs to the general community and training the public to become comfortable in carrying out CPR and using AED’s. In 2019 an AED was used in only 7% of cardiac arrests before an ambulance arrived. This is a figure we can vastly improve on as a nation.

If you want to help right now

The National Ambulance Service is encouraging all HSE staff to access CPR training, keep yourself updated and check how to make AEDs, both in your workplace and your own community, more widely available for public use, 24/7. If you would like further advice or if you would like to register an AED – please get in touch now - email cfr@hse.ie or click on the link to the NAS website.

Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest (OHCA) Strategy for Ireland, Putting Survival at the Heart of the Community

The HSE commissioned the implementation of this national strategy in 2019 and NAS is currently leading a multi stakeholder Steering Group of health, statutory and voluntary agencies to implement it. The goal is to save approximately 80 lives a year of people who experience an Out of Hospital Cardiac Arrest.