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Quick Thinking, Jolt Save Exerciser's Life: Bystander Was Trained to Use Defibrillator

Posted on: Saturday, 4 March 2006, 15:00 CST

By Scott Gutierrez, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Mar. 4--OLYMPIA -- Any time Sandra Inglin sees a portable defibrillator inside a public building, she remembers its location.

It's part of her training as a flight attendant, always being prepared for an emergency.

Her instincts paid off this week as she finished her workout at the Briggs YMCA and heard another woman collapse on a treadmill. A quick dash for an Automatic External Defibrillator anchored on the wall at the YMCA's front counter saved the woman's life.

"They train us just to prepare for the worst-case scenario," Inglin said Friday as she recounted the frantic few minutes that brought Laurie Murphy back from a cardiac event.

It was just after 4:30 p.m. Sunday when Murphy, 41, a mother of three, suddenly lost consciousness after an electrical disruption in her heart sent it into ventricular fibrillation, which is when the muscle quivers erratically, not pumping blood.

Inglin, an Olympia flight attendant who has worked 19 years for Alaska Airlines, first thought Murphy might have suffered a seizure. But when she saw the woman's skin turning gray, she knew her heart had stopped beating.

Inglin trains every year on how to use a portable defibrillator for her job. The small box-like devices deliver an electric charge that shocks the heart back into rhythm.

This was her first time using one on a real person. With help from her friend, Annette Henry, who monitored Murphy's pulse, Inglin affixed the electrodes and waited for the machine to scan for a heartbeat. When it didn't find one, the computer directed her to administer the shock.

Murphy was breathing again on her own when paramedics arrived.

"The medics called me the next day and told me they analyzed the data from the defibrillator and she would not have made it if we had not shocked her," Inglin said.

The YMCA is one of about 100 locations in Thurston County that keep a public-access defibrillator on hand, said Alan Provencher, Thurston County Medic One public education coordinator. Others include the state Capitol and office buildings, The Evergreen State College, Saint Martin's University, city offices and The Washington Center for the Performing Arts.

Chances of surviving a heart attack can depend on several factors, including how soon cardiopulmonary resuscitation is administered and how quickly someone can administer a defibrillator.

Olympia Fire Department Lt. Jim Brown, who responded to Sunday's emergency, said chances of survival decrease drastically if the brain goes without oxygen for more than four minutes.

In Murphy's case, she was off the treadmill at 4:38 p.m. Someone called 9-1-1 two minutes later. At 4:42 p.m., Inglin gave Murphy a shock, Brown said.

"In the chain of survival for cardiac instances, getting electrical shock on board is one of the most critical elements in the whole deal," he said. "Sandra was really kind of downplaying it. But I told her that the patient has a family, and if you hadn't done what you did, those kids might not have a mom."

The irony for Murphy is that she's been in the best shape of her life, she said. She had been training hard the past few months, preparing for the Danskin Triathlon in Seattle in August, she said. She realizes she'll probably have to skip that for now.

She recalled feeling short of breath before losing consciousness. She initially had stopped her running for about five minutes and felt better. She thought maybe the smell of disinfectant someone had sprayed near her was triggering an allergic reaction.

The next things she can vaguely recall are bright lights and paramedics hovering over her. Because of the temporary loss of oxygen, she was combative toward her rescuers.

She was taken to Providence St. Peter Hospital, where she underwent several tests. All showed no damage to her heart or artery blockages. Before she was released from the hospital on Thursday, doctors surgically inserted a small defibrillator into her chest, which will shock her heart back into rhythm if she has future problems, she said.

"I was just really very surprised. I was shocked. When they said a flight attendant was there who knew what to do and reacted so quickly, I wanted to meet this person," she said. "I just feel so grateful that she was there and that she knew what to do and that she did what she did. I'm grateful the 'Y' had a defibrillator."

Inglin visited Murphy in the hospital. It turns out that Murphy's 12-year-old son is in a class with Inglin's 12-year-old daughter, she said.

"It's such a great story. I'm glad she's going to be there for her kids for so many more years," she said.

Murphy, a computer science teacher at Pacific Lutheran University, said her department just moved into a new building that doesn't have a public-access defibrillator. The other building did.

"I think I'm going to propose that our building have one as well. I think those things should be everywhere," she said.

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Copyright (c) 2006, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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Source: The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

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