Teamwork and training saved visitor's life in the Somerset County Jail

SOMERSET ― It all happened so fast.

The 81-year-old woman entered Somerset County Jail's lobby last month late for her visit. She walked up to the glass window grabbed her chest and began complaining of pains. The correctional officers working out of the enclosed booth on the other side of the glass hit the release button to open the nearby heavy gray steel door and rushed through it to come to her aid.

All staff and visitors must go through that door to enter the jail.

Within two seconds, they got to her and by then she had slumped to a sitting position.

"Her lips were blue," said Correctional Officer Breanna Fieg.

"She was responsive. But, it was like she wasn't really there. She didn't have anything in her to hold herself up," she said.

Correctional Officers Fieg and Nathan Kasterko placed her on the floor.

"Her breathing was weak," Fieg said.

Deputy Warden David Krause, who was in charge that day, was told immediately about what was happening, as was lead nurse Cindy Showman. Both went to the lobby. Showman advised someone to call 911. The ambulance was on its way.

When Krause saw the staff had it under control, he went back through the steel door and began escorting the visitors already inside out of the facility. He had the jail locked down. Because so many staff were involved in helping the woman during this emergency, Krause said he was concerned about security.

In the meantime, in the lobby things were moving fast.

"At that time our training comes into play and everything else goes out of your mind," Fieg said. She does remember thinking, "The woman was going to make it."

The jail lieutenants on duty, Kyle Landis and Geoff Parrish, joined Fieg, Kasterko and Showman, who said first she did a sternum rub to the pale woman "with minimal response to that." She noticed the woman's respirations were getting shallow and irregular.

"From my experience I knew she was going to stop breathing and go into cardiac arrest," said Showman, who has been a practicing nurse for 31 years, the last five in the jail. She has dealt with many such cases in her career, however, this is the first one in the jail.

"I had them lay her flat. When that was done there was no respiration. At that point we put the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) pads on her. It advised us to shock. And once it shocked and at that point the woman did not have sustainable heart rhythms, so I immediately started compressions ( CPR) on her," Showman said.

She did three rounds of compressions. The AED reanalyzed and advised no more shocking was needed, but CPR was, so she continued administering CPR.

"The AED, once it is placed, will read the heart rhythm," Showman said. Any irregular rhythm is noted.

The AED tells those using it a shock is advised and if and when CPR should be used, according to re-entry coordinator Eugene Galentine, who was on the team that helped that day.

"The machine does everything," he said.

That day, the AED delivered one shock and the patient regained consciousness. The compressions kept her going.

"She was actually moving and talking, so we knew we had saved her," "Galentine said. He found out that "she had 100% blockage."

Most of the time people don't make it with 100% blockage unless people are there to start CPR right away, Showman said.

How: CPR knowledge: Learning how to save a life like a 17-year-old did at Pine Grill

Emergency medical help arrives

According to a letter submitted to the Somerset County Commissioners by John Jordan, Somerset Area Ambulance Association EMS chief, at 1:20 p.m., Somerset Ambulance was dispatched to the Somerset County Jail responding to the call.

Somerset's ambulances were already out on calls, so a Stoystown unit was assigned to the call. The emergency medical service received a report a short time later that the patient was unconscious, without a pulse or spontaneous respirations and CPR was in progress.

Jordan said in the letter when he arrived at the scene at 1:31 p.m., the patient was awake, alert and complaining of chest pain. The jail personnel told the EMS staff that one shock had been delivered by the AED and that the woman regained consciousness. She was taken to the emergency department at UPMC Somerset.

How: When you call Somerset County 911, someone will answer the call

They were able to check the AED used, Jordan said, and found the patient suffered a ventricular tachycardiac cardiac arrest, a non-perfusing and non-sustainable rhythm that has high survival rates if early intervention is taken, he wrote. This information helps the cardiology teams at the hospital when they're establishing a care plan, he wrote.

Helpers honored

Somerset County Commissioners, the prison board and the "Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association" recognized county jail personnel March 12 for saving a life. Fieg, Galentine, Kasterko, Kyle Landis, Geoff Parrish, Showman, Daniel Talley and Nicole Tinkey were honored for their quick response Feb. 21.

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According to Jordan in the letter, "The chain of survival contains many links and not one link is any more important than the others. Without the quick thinking and rapid action of the staff, this patient's outcome would have been far worse."

Jordan wrote, "It is because of those actions this patient will live to see another day, she will get to spend more time with her loved ones, and she will serve as a positive statistic in the United States as it pertains to out of hospital cardiac arrest."

The commissioners congratulated the personnel for the quick action to save the woman's life.

"We are very proud of them," said Commissioner Irvin Kimmel Jr.

Commissioners Chairman Brian Fochtman said this is a testimony of the training the personnel received.

"That's teamwork. They needed to be ready to respond and they did it like clockwork," said Commissioner Pamela Tokar-Ickes.

Cheryl Rickens, an EMS Specialist with UPMC Prehospital Care and the chairwoman of the Western PA Chapter of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association, officially recognized the personnel as well and presented them with LifeSaver Awards.

Another beginning

The woman was dismissed from the hospital Feb. 25.

"It is part of all of our jobs. It is what we do," Galentine said. "It is a good feeling to know you saved someone. Not everyone is saved, so it is a good feeling."

This article originally appeared on The Daily American: Teamwork and training saved visitor's life in the Somerset County Jail