Quick CPR, firefighter response prove critical

The firefighters credit the Canfield woman with performing CPR properly and immediately.

By DENISE DICK

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

DENISE GLISTA HOLDS HER
husband, Ron, closely, more than two weeks after nearly losing him. The couple, of Canfield, were shopping at the South Avenue Sam’s Club in Boardman the afternoon of Jan. 21, when Ron felt the room spin, then fell backward onto the floor.

His wife of 15 years initially thought he’d tripped then realized it was something more serious. Her husband had had a heart attack.

She began performing CPR. She learned it a few years before while working for Mahoning County Head Start. Another customer offering assistance called 911 with still more kind strangers trying to help.

A woman, who said she was an EMT, pitched in, taking over CPR.

Firefighters Todd Kennedy, Rob John and Mark Reader arrived about two minutes after getting the call, finding Glista, 52, without a pulse and not breathing. They took over CPR and applied the automatic external defibrillator, or AED. The AED took a reading, telling the firefighters to shock the victim.

“They were very nice,” Denise, 48, said of the firefighters. “I was holding Ron’s hand, and they told me that I’d have to let go and back up or I’d get shocked, too.”

The shock restored a heart rhythm and paramedics arrived and transported Glista to St. Elizabeth Health Center, Youngstown.

Ron remembers little about the ordeal before waking up in the hospital. He had surgery to implant a stent and open an artery.

“I’m tired and my chest is sore,” but otherwise Ron says he’s feeling pretty well.

He was discharged from St. E’s on Jan. 25 and is expected to make a full recovery although he plans to drop a few pounds. Actually, staying home from his construction job for the last week is making him a little stir crazy. He’s unaccustomed to doing nothing.

More often when the three firefighters arrive at calls similar to the one involving the Glistas, the end result isn’t so positive, said Kennedy, a township firefighter for about 12 years.

“We usually don’t get the reading [on the AED] that tells us to give a shock,” John said.

When the AED doesn’t give a shock reading, firefighters continue CPR until the patient gets transported. The patient often doesn’t survive.

John estimates that in his 15 years as an EMT, this marks the fourth or fifth time he’s seen an indication to shock a patient.

The fire department started using AEDs in 2004 and statistics show personnel have responded to 149 patients in cardiac arrest and applied an AED 127 times over the four-year period. On only 41 patients has the AED analyzed a heart rhythm and advised the patient be shocked. Department records don’t indicate how many patients have been saved with use of AEDs.

The firefighters credit Mrs. Glista’s quick thinking in performing CPR properly for saving her husband.

“It makes a big difference with CPR done properly,” said Reader, a 22-year department veteran.

Denise tears up and hugs her husband when hearing about how close he came to death.

She’s not sure how she had the presence of mind to perform CPR.

“Something just comes over you,” Denise said.

Quick CPR administration is crucial because it keeps oxygenated blood circulating through the body, said John, who’s been with the township fire department for about 10 years.

“That’s what the surgeon told me at the hospital: ‘If it weren’t for your wife, you wouldn’t be here,’” Ron said.

Both Ron and Denise expressed gratitude to both the firefighters and the people in Sam’s Club who offered assistance.

“We want to thank everyone for all of their help,” Denise said.

The couple met Reader, John and Kennedy last week, bringing a plate of cookies as a small thanks. Denise hugged each of the men while Ron shook their hands.

Denise disregards suggestions that she deserves a special Valentine’s Day gift from her husband this year.

It’s enough just to have him here, she says.