# Enjoy every ride!



## drjeff (Aug 2, 2010)

I just got a call from my stunned/shocked wife who was in the middle of her usual roughly 20 mile Monday night group ride through our LBS/Bike club.  Apparently one of the riders, who had been on many previous rides with the group and is a solid rider, while at one of their regroup/rest points had a major seizure and went into full cardiac arrest   With a quick cell phone call and a state police officer who was passing by, as my wife recalled less than a minute after the incident began, CPR was started and was still on going a few moments later when the ambulance arrived to take the rider off to the hospital (about a 5 minute ride from where the incident happened) - hopefully the rider will make it and be okay

Enjoy every ride, and please consider if you arren't already certified taking an American Heart Association CPR course, the more folks that are certified, the bettter the chance that they'll be somebody around if YOU ever need it!


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## o3jeff (Aug 2, 2010)

Never mind enjoy every ride, enjoy everyday no matter what you are doing.

Hope they pull thru and are ok.


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## BackLoafRiver (Aug 2, 2010)

Thank god they got to the rider so quickly. I hope they are ok. Please keep us posted.

It is such a great point...to always value and cherish every minute we have.  I always say a huge thanks for having the ability to get out and ride during the summer and ski during the winter.


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## drjeff (Aug 2, 2010)

BackLoafRiver said:


> Thank god they got to the rider so quickly. I hope they are ok. Please keep us posted.
> 
> It is such a great point...to always value and cherish every minute we have.  I always say a huge thanks for having the ability to get out and ride during the summer and ski during the winter.



Now that my wife has been home for a couple of hours and had a chance to calm down a bit and get her thoughts together, here's a bit of an update, and likely just how lucky this person will hopefully be.

On the ride tonight, with the group, and were there on the spot when the person had this incident, were a RI state trooper and a CPR trainer!  Literally as soon as the person went down (apparently was wretching as they were coming to a stop just before having what appeared to be a seizure) - as soon as the person fell over, and the group realized that the person was turning first shades of red and then blue and was unresponsive, the assesment began, even before another member of the group unclipped the person from their other pedal.

An update e-mail was sent out tonight to members of the cycle club, saying that the person had been airlifted from our local hospital in NE CT to one of the Hartford area hospitals, and that prior to the helicopter ride, the person was both maintaining a strong, steady heartbeat and was breathing on their own, although had yet to regain consciousness.

As the event was hapening, and my wife was watching /observing, she was the person who the group instructed to find the persons cell phone and see if their spouses # was there, and my wife was the person who notified the spouse via phone.  As my wife put it to me, "Do you have a prominent ICE (In Case of Emergency) call number on your phone?"  I do now.  Make sure you've got readily available ID and contact #'s with you when you ride - you never know when someone else may have to find out that info for you


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## tjf67 (Aug 3, 2010)

drjeff said:


> Now that my wife has been home for a couple of hours and had a chance to calm down a bit and get her thoughts together, here's a bit of an update, and likely just how lucky this person will hopefully be.
> 
> On the ride tonight, with the group, and were there on the spot when the person had this incident, were a RI state trooper and a CPR trainer!  Literally as soon as the person went down (apparently was wretching as they were coming to a stop just before having what appeared to be a seizure) - as soon as the person fell over, and the group realized that the person was turning first shades of red and then blue and was unresponsive, the assesment began, even before another member of the group unclipped the person from their other pedal.
> 
> ...



ICE number.  never thought of it.  GREAT IDEA!!    

Good Luck Buddy whoever you are.


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## hammer (Aug 3, 2010)

ICE contacts checked...thanks for the reminder.


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## Glenn (Aug 3, 2010)

Wow Jeff! That's a pretty scary situation. But it sounds like things went according to plan. We do a trainings every so often at work. Everyone has a role and it goes so much smoother if you have a number of people doing their jobs.


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## TheBEast (Aug 3, 2010)

Well wishes for the rider for a speedy recovery!

ICE number has been in my phone for a few years now.  I also never go out on a ride, run, ski, whatever without my RoadID.  They're inexpensive and can save your life!!  http://www.roadid.com


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## billski (Aug 3, 2010)

I never, ever want to be in a position of not knowing what do do.  I've seen it happen.  Your wife's group was very lucky there was trained help nearby.  It started the first time I saw the Heimlich maneuver in action at a restaurant.  It was fast and it worked.  Amazing stuff.

At this point, you would feel very safe coming to our house - we have 3 certified CPR, one water safety instructor, one trained in wilderness first aid and three general first aid.  Not bragging, it's just a general awareness our family has along with one who is a camp counselor and required that knowledge.  

It could be you, it could be someone you encounter.

I have an ICE on the splash screen of my GPS too.


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## drjeff (Aug 3, 2010)

billski said:


> I never, ever want to be in a position of not knowing what do do.  I've seen it happen.  Your wife's group was very lucky there was trained help nearby.  It started the first time I saw the Heimlich maneuver in action at a restaurant.  It was fast and it worked.  Amazing stuff.
> 
> At this point, you would feel very safe coming to our house - we have 3 certified CPR, one water safety instructor, one trained in wilderness first aid and three general first aid.  Not bragging, it's just a general awareness our family has along with one who is a camp counselor and required that knowledge.
> 
> ...



The "safe" thing about my wife's usual Monday group ride participants is the solid emergency skills background that usually is present - in addition to the RI state policeman and the CPR instructor I mentioned, there's usually a general surgeon and a family medicine doc that ride (they weren't on last nights ride though) - so if something has to happen when your in the saddle, that's not a bad group at all to be part of!  But still,  the more that people get the certification, the more likely there is to be someone around when YOU need it.  And nowadays the rumor is that the latest rendition of the American Heart Association guidelines is that it's JUST going to be about chest compressions, with the only variable being depth of the compressions.  Rescue breathing is apparently being considered for elimination


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## billski (Aug 3, 2010)

drjeff said:


> And nowadays the rumor is that the latest rendition of the American Heart Association guidelines is that it's JUST going to be about chest compressions, with the only variable being depth of the compressions.  Rescue breathing is apparently being considered for elimination



Yes, I'm aware of that, just having been re-certified.  There was a recent study which showed the efficacy of both methods to be similar and the hesitancy on the part of rescuers to go mouth-mouth, due to fear of disease.  I'm sure you also know that recently removed was checking for pulse.  

Interestingly, the first response for choking now includes back whacks, having been eliminated for some time.


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## Sky (Aug 3, 2010)

I added ICE to my phone years ago when I first heard the idea.

ICE WIFE *wife's name* so in the unfortunate circumstance someone has to utilize it...they have the info.

My kids did similar treatments to their phones as well.

Speedy Recovery to your wife's riding companion!!


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## billski (Aug 3, 2010)

drjeff said:


> The "safe" thing about my wife's usual Monday group ride participants is the solid emergency skills background that usually is present - in addition to the RI state policeman and the CPR instructor I mentioned, there's usually a general surgeon and a family medicine doc that ride (they weren't on last nights ride though) - so if something has to happen when your in the saddle, that's not a bad group at all to be part of!  But still,  the more that people get the certification, the more likely there is to be someone around when YOU need it.  And nowadays the rumor is that the latest rendition of the American Heart Association guidelines is that it's JUST going to be about chest compressions, with the only variable being depth of the compressions.  Rescue breathing is apparently being considered for elimination



Sounds like a pretty high-value group that maybe shouldn't all ride together.  :-o  Bowling for Doctors.  All it would take is one DUI idiot...


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## SKIQUATTRO (Aug 3, 2010)

i have 2 ROAD ID's

http://www.roadid.com

one always with my bike stuff and it goes on the ankle every ride then loop it on my frame so its always there. 

the other is always with my running gear...

cheap insurance......


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## RootDKJ (Aug 3, 2010)

o3jeff said:


> Never mind enjoy every ride, enjoy everyday no matter what you are doing.
> 
> Hope they pull thru and are ok.


+1


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## drjeff (Aug 4, 2010)

An e-mail was sent out to the bike club members last night updating the persons health status.  They are still unconscious in the cardiac intensive care unit(as of last night) with a stable pulse and are breathing on their own, with good signs of brain electrical activity - docs say that this can be quite common and that recovery is expected, but it might take a while.  Also was said that it's more than likely that if the folks hadn't been on the group ride that were and able to begin CPR so quickly, that this more than likely would have been a fatality


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## Warp Daddy (Aug 4, 2010)

Scary ------------------Godspeed and prayers for the rider .


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## drjeff (Aug 12, 2010)

A happy ending to this event! The person came home from the hospital today, 10 days after the event, and 5 days after waking up from the coma they were in starting at the time of the incident!  The persons spouse conveyed to bike club memebers via an e-mail that the docs in the cardiac department at Hartford Hospital told them that that if there hadn't been the trained folks on hand that were there when it happened that the outcome would have been a fatality 99% of the time and even with those folks there once the heartbeat is lost, CPR is successful only about 1/3-1/2 the time!

Our local bike club is going to have a new class of memebership for this person, and that's folks that have a heart attack while on a club sponsored ride and survive, automatically become lifetime members of the club for free!


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## bvibert (Aug 12, 2010)

Glad it turned out so well!


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## o3jeff (Aug 12, 2010)

bvibert said:


> Glad it turned out so well!



+1


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## Warp Daddy (Aug 12, 2010)

wonderful ------------glad for everyone involved , having a second chance is the greatest gift -- take it from one who has BEEN there .


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