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NYSAED Home >> NYSAED News >> Prattsburgh, New York Resident Saved by AED
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The quick response by a sheriff’s deputy and ambulance staff helped save a man’s
life Saturday, sheriff’s office officials said. When the call came in at 7:31 a.m.
that Rodney Bulkley, no age or address reported, went into cardiac arrest and was
unresponsive, Deputy Erin Boyle responded to Air Flo, 40 S. Main St. She found Bulkley
lying on the cement floor face up with no pulse. Boyle applied the automatic external
defibrillator (AED), which instructed her to administer a shock.
The next instructions were to continue cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) at which
point a Prattsburgh ambulance arrived. Bulkley was placed in the back of the ambulance
and ALS Rural Metro took over his care. He was then taken to Corning Hospital, deputies
reported. No additional information on his condition was available. Boyle said she
was simply in the right place at the right time, emphasizing the combined effort
by all those involved. She said she made use of the training that all deputies receive.
“When something like that happens you fall back on your training,” Boyle said. “I’m
a certified first responder and I’ve been a lifeguard for eight years. You just
know what has to be done and you just do it. It helped that I was in the Prattsburgh
area and I arrived in about three minutes.” Thanks to an AED program established
in 1999 by Undersheriff David Cole, each deputy carries an AED in his or her patrol
vehicle. “If I didn’t have an AED in my car, maybe the circumstance would have been
different. I’m thankful for having the AED in my car,” Boyle said. “Today is my
fourth day (on road patrol). I’ve been with the department three years in November.”
Cole said this is the fourth time a person has been saved since the AED program
began and the second time this year. He said Deputy Jen Reed saved a man in Hammondsport
last spring. The man was given three shocks from the AED and taken to Ira Davenport
Memorial Hospital. Cole said when someone goes into cardiac arrest, an AED does
not restart his or her heart, but stops it so that it will start on its own.
“The deputy’s job is to use the AED to actually shock the heart. The defibrillator
will stop that person’s erratic heart rhythm,” he said. “Deputies, once they revive
somebody, they generally will have the ALS and the ambulance come right after them.
Our policies are that the deputy will step aside if a person of higher skill, like
an EMT, comes in.”
Cole said when a person is in cardiac arrest, there is roughly an eight to 10 minute
window before his or her heart stops. If someone is not actually in cardiac arrest,
the machine will not administer a shock, he said.
“She aggressively did a hell of a job,” Cole said of Boyle. “We want them to be
aggressive on it. Deputy Boyle saved this guy’s life. There’s no doubt about it.
I do know he was sitting up and talking in the ambulance after the shock.”
Cole said there will likely be an event held to honor Boyle, but said he needs to
discuss it with Sheriff Richard Tweddell first. Emergency 911 dispatchers will contact
state police and deputies on ambulance calls and tell them where the ambulance is
going, Cole said.
“Without that, this would never have happened this morning. For that reason, 911
is a key player,” he said
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