July 23, 2008
Two St. John’s University Public Safety officers have been
lauded as “St. John’s Guardian Angels” for their quick response to
a life-or-death emergency situation on the Queens campus earlier
this month. P.O Steven Ptacek and Sgt. John Amadeo exhibited calm
professionalism and grace under pressure as they attempted to
resuscitate a Conference Services guest who had collapsed while
playing basketball in the Residence Village.
The victim, who was staying on campus with Teach for America,
had been shooting hoops on the courts near Montgoris Dining Hall
when he suddenly collapsed with what has been described by
witnesses as “some kind of seizure.”
Vice President of Public Safety Thomas Lawrence reports that as
soon as the call came in, Officer Ptacek rushed to the scene. He
found the young man unconscious, unresponsive and not breathing and
immediately began CPR and mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Just two
minutes later, Sgt. Amadeo arrived with oxygen and an automated
external defibrillator (AED), a device designed for use by
non-medical responders. (AEDs are located in a number of places
around St. John’s campuses for use in just this kind of an
event.)
Taking advantage of the AED’s capability to analyze a victim’s
condition on-site, the two officers received a “shock advised”
prompt. They positioned the two chest electrode pads, delivered the
shock and continued performing CPR on the 24-year-old until EMS
arrived and took control of the situation. The victim was
transported to a local hospital and subsequently transferred to
another where an implantable cardiac defibrillator was surgically
inserted.
Data downloaded from the AED and sent to the Heart Saver
Institute, a company that analyzes information recorded by AEDs,
revealed that the 24-year-old had indeed been in ventricular
fibrillation, or cardiac arrest.
In his written report of the incident, Robert J. Kammerer,
Technical Director at the Institute, referred to the two Public
Safety officers as “St. John’s Guardian Angels,” commenting, “Once
again, quick action and well-trained Good Samaritans saved another
life. Well done by all.”
“This is a good example of why we continue to provide eight
hours of training every six months to our Public Safety team—both
full- and part-timers,” says Vice President Lawrence.
“Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is one topic we covered in our
latest training held during the first week in June, as were the
locations of the various types of safety equipment (like AEDs) on
campus and how to use them. These two men were well equipped to
deal with this life-or-death situation.”
Thanks to P.O. Ptacek and Sgt. Amadeo, this story had a happy
ending: the teacher-in-training has returned to his home in
Massachusetts.