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Dustin was playing baseball on the freshman team for East High School in Des Moines, Iowa. He had made the team as an 8th grader, and was 14 at the time. On June 15th of 2006 East was playing Ottumwa. It was the 7th inning, and they had Dustin pinch hitting. He squared off to bunt, and the pitch hit him in the heart area at the exact time the heart just took a beat, which caused his heart to stop (Commotio Cordis; blunt force trauma to the heart). He jogged down to first base where he collasped with no heart beat, and no pulse. Thankfully, in our stands we had a nurse (Marlana Laird) from our team, and 2 members from Ottumwa's Fire Department as well as trained First Responders (Tony Miller & Doug Overturf) from Ottumwa's team, who knew what to do. Tony started CPR, and Marlana started mouth-to-mouth, while Doug kept Dustin's airway open with the chin lift. The school had an AED, but it was locked up in the football stadium at the time. The ambulance arrived about 5 minutes later, and had to shock Dustin 2 times to get his heart beating again. Once they got his heart beating they took him to Blank Childrens Hospital where he spent about 36 hours in intensive care. If it was not for those 3 wonderful people, who I will always look at as Hereos, and the ambulance being less then 5 minutes away, Dustin would not be here today. It's a miracle he lived and was back playing baseball 2 weeks later. Now he wears a chest guard at all times when playing ball. Rhonda Medearis (Dustin's Mom) |
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While at work in West Des Moines, Mary attended a meeting on Monday afternoon, May 17, 2004. Minutes after sitting down she exhaled deeply, over-gripped her pen and then her head hit the table. She suffered Sudden Cardiac Arrest.
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I did not have a diagnosed heart condition and my blood pressure was normal. I had never experienced chest pain or shortness of breath, but on the morning of July 26, 2002, I had a sudden cardiac arrest. As I pulled up to the stoplight at the intersection of Highways 3 and 65 in Hampton, Iowa, my heart went into ventricular fibrillation--a lethal arrhythmia characterized by rapid, chaotic quivering of the heart. My heart was no longer pumping. I lost consciousness and slumped over the steering wheel of my car. It drifted across two lanes of the busy highway, climbed the curb, knocked over a sign and came to rest against a tree in a front yard. There were only a precious four minutes before my brain could be permanently damaged and then only a few more minutes before I would die. I am one of the lucky people who survived because I live in a community where law enforcement officers carry an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED). Click here to read the rest of Mari Ann's story. |
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