READY or NOT?

by Rick Miller

The day couldn’t have been more perfect for a Christmas tree hunt, and we were enjoying it fully. Having harvested our tree, we were drinking mugs of hot chocolate, eating Christmas cookies, and plotting where to try next. Good friends Garrick and Karlie were along with their two small boys. A flatbed truck approached, and I walked over to chat with the driver. I thought he was a local landowner (who I wanted to talk deer management with) but he turned out to be an off-duty Forest Service employee who was a great source of information. We talked deer for about 15 minutes, and he then continued down the road. We gathered up our stuff and headed in the same direction a few minutes behind Garrick.

We moseyed along enjoying the weather when around a corner we noticed Garrick stopped in the middle of the road with both doors open. I could see something going on to his left, downslope. The scene went from calm and relaxed to emotionally charged panic in seconds. I jumped out of the truck and headed toward Garrick. I could see at least three teens and someone laying on the ground. Garrick told me the dad had had a heart attack a short time before he arrived, and the oldest daughter and son were trying to give CPR. He was trying to find a breathing apparatus to give breaths as the son was doing so and needed some help. Being in the electrical field my whole career, I’d had lots of CPR training, but “Thank God” had never had to use it. Garrick was also trained and knowledgeable. Now was the time–could we effectively recall and apply?

Garrick did find a breathing isolator in his first aid kit, but it was a simple flat device with no real isolation. I had recently thrown mine away as it was just gathering dust in the truck console. The flatbed guy had left the scene to try to find cell service to call 911. My wife (Diane) took our truck and did the same.

I took over the compressions while Garrick readied for breaths. In a relaxed training environment, hitting the right compression cadence seems easy. Swap relaxed with high emotion and life-hinging responsibility and the procedure is not quite so intuitive. Not sure how you compress deeply enough to be effective and keep a seemingly very fast rhythm. I struggled in my mind that I wasn’t doing it fast enough–damn! Giving breaths was tough, to say the least. Without an isolation device, mouth-to-mouth gets very personal with stomach fluid exchanges being common. Despite that less-than-desirable effect Garrick and the man’s son didn’t hesitate. They both knew what was at stake and did what had to be done.

We did the best we could to monitor pulse and breathing but found that aspect challenging as well. Mix in the person who is doing the checks with a racing heart and stressed breathing, and subtle indicators are very hard to detect. We pressed on not knowing what else to do.

The flatbed guy came racing back, reporting he had made contact and help was on the way. We were about 20 minutes into the event when we decided to lift the man and place him on the truck bed where we could move toward the first responders. Panic was still the controlling factor and we probably rolled down the road a bit too fast for the three of us on the flatbed deck, still performing CPR. Luckily, none of us bounced out. We met two sheriff deputies about 10 minutes later.

The deputies had an AED which they attached immediately. I took the two semi-in-shock older teens with me away from the procedure. The scene was heartbreaking, and the teens were tough but a mess (you can imagine). The deputies decided to continue toward the ambulance, with Garrick still giving compressions.

We men the ambulance short time later, where they took over the emergency care. We were told the EMT’s called the resuscitation effort before reaching the hospital in Lame Deer. Our efforts had failed despite giving it our all.

The ill-fated dad was 44 and it was his daughter’s 14th birthday.

I tell this story to raise awareness about a threat that is around us all the time as bowhunters. Heart attacks can happen at any time and to anyone. Being prepared can make the difference between life and death.