Who will save your life?  Luck has nothing to do with it!

For me it was my wife, Chestermere Fire and Rescue, Calgary EMS and a team of doctors at Foothills Cardio Department.

Monday May 27th at about 6:15 am, I grabbed a glass of milk from the fridge and walked to the kitchen table to fall flat on my face breaking a front tooth and damaging other teeth. I hit my head, knee and nose awakening my wife and kids on impact from the huge noise.  In the next few seconds of my wife coming to my side, my ears, lips, and face were starting to turn blue and I was in Cardiac arrest from arrhythmia vibration of the heart.  I now was at the mercy of others who take time to train and prepare for others care to continue being part of this world.

My wife called 911 and began CPR.  Chestermere Fire and Rescue were at her side to take over in 4.5 minutes from the initiation of the call.  When seconds matter and the rescue team only knowing it was cardiac arrest, their response helped save my mind and life.  Sirens blasting and generating some complaints on response speed, I am thankful that when they understood the urgency they managed such a timely response to the almost southern end of the West side of the lake.

Captain J Linton, Firefighters P Selman, J. Vitak, J. Ross, R. King and A. Burley, took over CPR and defibrillating me back to life.  As the wait for also amazing response Calgary EMS resumed I went into Cardiac arrest for the second time.  More CPR and another defibrillation to which I awoke very violently needing restraint on all limbs.  I was packed for transportation to Peter Loughheed hospital accompanied by a close personal friend.  About half way to the hospital I went into Cardiac arrest for the 3rd time to be revived as being transported floating in and out of consciousness. 

A cat-scan /evaluation on arrival netted no conclusions to which I was transported hot (with sirens and lights) to the Foothills hospital.  A team of doctors was examining me on the hospital bed at the hospital and I went into cardiac arrest for the fourth time.  I remember about 2 in the afternoon wakening wondering what happened and what had went wrong with no memory except the fridge and a regular Monday morning routine.

The nurse at the hospital comforted my wife by saying we don’t advertise, but the Cardio unit at the Foothills hospital is ranked top in North America and her husband could not be in a better home.  Angiogram and echo testing revealed a perfect heart and no blockages anywhere. Remaining very unstable in ICU the doctors told me my plumbing was perfect but my electrical system had shorted.  

Tuesday morning a team of 9 plus doctors explained in layman terms what was happening.  I asked this medical team: “my son is graduating and could I make the graduation Friday night,” of which the main doctor replied probably not but they would try.  X-rays, MRI, chemical test for heart response, and Thursday at 10 am an operation to install an ICD (Implanted Cardioverter Defibrillator) which makes me a hybrid on Wi-Fi.

Friday morning I shook the main doctor’s hand thanking him for discharging me for 1 in the afternoon Friday.  My energy was very low so I rented a wheel chair and attended the Chestermere Grad 2013 ceremony themed “Luck has nothing to do with it.”

As I listened to the speech’s and especially the valedictorian Tyler Rosolowski whose family are close friends since arriving in Chestermere, I kept thinking, “All those people whose lives dedicated to taking extra training/time in case some day they needed to use that expertise to contribute to a positive outcome of someone regardless if they knew them or not, “Luck has nothing to do with it.”

My life continues respectfully thankful to all those who made a huge difference in my life at 48 years young.

Please consider this as my thank you to anyone I have not personally thanked for making a difference.

Thank you for reading this, Chestermere is our home and where we chose to raise a family, what a great community