Here is an account of a pertinent incident. Sometimes we do indeed win...


Yellowstone National Park (ID,MT,WY)
Visitor’s Life Saved Through Effective EMS Response

Dispatcher Martha Downing received a 911 call on the evening of July 19th reporting that a 67-year-old man had collapsed in the RV park at Fishing Bridge. The man’s wife had witnessed the collapse and quickly began CPR; she also began pounding on the walls of the trailer to gain the attention of people in neighboring campsites. The neighbor who responded was a member of an ambulance company who carried an automated external defibrillator (AED) on his travels and administered multiple shocks.

Law enforcement ranger Morgan Leech, park medic Eric Amundson, paramedics Trenton Harper and Ben Dowdy, and SCA John Hinshaw were among the park’s first responders. They provided ALS interventions and were able to restore a pulse. The man was transported to the Lake Clinic and taken by life flight to Eastern Idaho Medical Center. Prior to departing Lake Clinic, he was alert and talking, and the initial report was that he would have no apparent deficits.

A good lesson to take away is that early CPR and AEDs work. The man was not breathing and his heart was not beating on its own for close to twenty minutes.
[Submitted by Bonnie Schwartz, Deputy Chief Ranger]