KSHB 41 reporter Lily O’Shea Becker covers Cass, Miami, Franklin and Douglas counties with an emphasis on Lawrence. Share your story idea with Lily.
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David Baston was working at The Jayhawk Club in Lawrence, Kansas, when he began to feel ill on Feb. 28.
A co-worker hopped in a car with him, and the two headed for Lawrence Memorial Hospital (LMH).
However, Baston said he had a gut feeling he needed medical assistance immediately, so they veered off the path to the hospital and pulled into Fire Station No. 5 in central Lawrence.
"I came in this door right here and told the receptionist that I think I was having a heart attack," Baston said.
Baston said he took a seat.
"I had no idea I was going to die right there in that chair there," he said.
Firefighter paramedic Jacob Gardner was working on Feb. 28.
He said it was a typical day; the crew was cooking breakfast together and about to eat when someone alerted them of a cardiac arrest in the lobby.
“We had enough time that he arrested, we put him on the AutoPulse, and then we checked his rhythm, shocked him and then he came back," Gardner said. "Like, fastest CPR I’ve ever seen.”
AutoPulse is an effective device Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical uses to administer CPR.
It creates continuous, quality compressions all around the chest.
"It’s a band that goes around the chest, and instead of having to do vertical compressions where we go straight down over the chest, it does circumferential compressions where it pulls all the way around the chest," Gardner said. "The biggest thing is that it just means that we don’t have to dedicate people to that task, ‘cause even doing CPR for two minutes is physically challenging."
In certain CPR emergencies, the survival rate in Lawrence is 45% compared to 30% at the national level, according to Lawrence Fire Chief Richard Llewellyn.
Baston said he's happy and blessed to be part of that statistic.
After his recovery, he returned to Fire Station No. 5 and thanked the crew that saved his life.
"Well, if they wouldn't have been here, I wouldn't be here, so I appreciate all the stuff that they do," Baston said.
Baston said hospital staff told him if he hadn't received medical treatment at the fire station, he wouldn't have survived.
Receiving CPR as quickly as possible is crucial in survival rates, according to first responders with Lawrence-Douglas County Fire Medical.
AutoPulse devices cost anywhere between $23,000 and $25,000, and Lawrence has 14 of them across the city, according to Llewellyn.
"Not everyone has them, yet," Llewellyn said. "It's an expensive piece of equipment. We've been fortunate here in Lawrence and Douglas County to have a budget that allows us to provide this service and this equipment within our community."
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