It was a perfect day at Quail Valley Golf Club when an afternoon round of golf took a terrifying turn. As one foursome wrapped up their game at the 18th hole, one of the men suddenly stopped in his tracks – and collapsed, a victim of cardiac arrest.
“At first, his friends thought he’d been stung by a bee,” said Dr. Seth Baker, a local cardiologist who happened to be at the clubhouse for lunch. “But when they realized he was unconscious, they sprang into action.”
While one friend ran to get help, another immediately began performing CPR – an act that Dr. Baker says saved the man’s life.
“A player assistant was nearby and jumped in a golf cart that was equipped with an AED (automated external defibrillator),” said Dr. Baker. “He arrived on the scene just before I did and had already set up the AED to deliver a shock. I took over from there until the EMTs arrived.”
Dr. Baker called the sequence of events “the perfect storm for survival.”
“With out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, survival depends on two things – how quickly CPR begins and how quickly a shockable rhythm is treated,” he said. “Less than 10 percent of people survive a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital.
“Of those who do survive the initial resuscitation and make it to the hospital, only about 8 percent survive beyond 30 days. The odds are not in your favor. This man, who also happens to be one of my patients, is alive and well today because everything aligned – and everyone acted fast.”
Cardiac arrest, which kills more than 400,000 in the U.S. annually, is different from a heart attack.
“A heart attack is when a blocked artery stops blood from reaching a section of the heart. If the blocked artery is not reopened quickly, the part of the heart normally fed by that artery begins to die. The longer a person goes without treatment, the greater the damage,” according to the American Heart Association.
“Sudden cardiac arrest happens suddenly and often without warning when an electrical failure in the heart causes an irregular heartbeat. The heart can’t pump blood to the brain, lungs and other organs. This causes a person to lose consciousness and a pulse. The person can die if they don’t receive help within minutes.”
“This gentleman was clinically dead, but because his friends knew CPR and the golf course had an AED available, he was awake, responsive and breathing on his own by the time emergency responders got there,” said Dr. Baker.
Three major factors reduce the chance of surviving an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, Dr. Baker added: being over the age of 85, taking more than 30 minutes to restore circulation, and having a non-shockable heart rhythm. Fortunately, the man who collapsed at Quail Valley, who did not want to be named, had a shockable rhythm.
“Most sudden cardiac arrests are caused by shockable rhythms,” Dr. Baker explained, but time is critical. Every minute that CPR is delayed reduces rate of survival by about 10 percent. When defibrillation is delayed, those odds plummet even further.
Dr. Baker hopes the dramatic events at the golf course serve as a wakeup call for the community.
“CPR and AEDs save lives, and you don’t have to be a doctor to use them,” he said. “AEDs are in gyms, airports, bus stations – and every Publix. The AED will talk you through it step by step.
You don’t have to be afraid to use one.”
Don Meadows, general manager at Quail Valley Golf Club for 17 years, said this is the first full cardiac arrest he’s witnessed at the club – but it’s exactly the kind of situation they’ve trained for.
“We’ve held CPR training for members and staff since the club opened,” Meadows said. “Our hospitality carts are stocked with AEDs, and our staff are trained to use them. We’ve had to deal with dehydration, bee stings, ant bites – but never anything like this. I’m proud of how everyone responded.”
Head golf pro Nate Tyler was one of the first on the scene.
“I’d never done it before, but I’d taken several CPR classes through the club,” said Tyler. “I just jumped in and started compressions. Dr. Baker got there quickly and took over, but it was a real team effort.”
“If you were on that golf course, would you have known what to do?” Gayl Nye, owner of Florida Heart CPR in Vero Beach, asks rhetorically. “We teach CPR classes at our facility on Airport Road, and I travel around town to different organizations to teach onsite. Quail Valley is one of our clients, and I’m thrilled their training kicked in when it mattered most.”
Nye emphasized that over 80 percent of cardiac arrests happen at home.
“Everyone should know how to do CPR,” she said. “Even if you’re not comfortable giving rescue breaths, just doing chest compressions can double someone’s chance of survival. Add an AED, and that chance can triple.”
According to the National Institutes of Health, defibrillation within three to five minutes of collapse from cardiac arrest can increase survival rates as much as 70 percent. For the most common form of cardiac arrest – ventricular fibrillation – defibrillation is the only effective treatment.
Yet, AEDs are used by bystanders in only about 10 percent of public cardiac arrests.
“Anyone can use one,” said Nye, echoing Dr. Baker. “Each unit comes with clear diagrams and voice instructions. It tells you when to place the pads, when to shock, and when to resume CPR. You just have to be willing to act.”
In this case, thanks to a willingness to act, the 18th hole wasn’t the end of the game – it was a fresh start. Thanks to the quick actions of his friends and trained staff, this golfer is alive, well, and back on the course for another round.
To learn CPR and AED use, contact Florida Heart CPR at 772-388-5252 or your local American Red Cross.
