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John Baldwin and Becky DePue were in the right place at the right time, and no one is happier about it than Harold “Guy” Ludwig.
It was about 2 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 17, and Ludwig, a maintenance technician at the Pilkington North America glass factory in Naplate, had three minutes left before he could punch in for his afternoon shift.
Suddenly, Ludwig was overcome by a strange sensation and collapsed onto the factory floor, suffering from a massive heart attack.
Fortunately, process engineer Baldwin and DePue, the site’s occupational nurse, saw him and rushed over to help. Together, they used chest compressions and an automated external defibrillator to shock him, just as DePue had taught and Baldwin had learned multiple times in the company’s CPR classes.
Everybody I’ve talked to, all the doctors, all the nurses, all the critical care people, all said the same thing – even the guy in the ambulance with me on the way to Rockford. They said [my co-workers] did a fantastic job.
— Harold “Guy” Ludwig
They were successful in reviving him, just about the time Ottawa Fire Department firefighter/paramedics Caleb Beck and James McGuire arrived. Initially responding to a report of a fall, the first responders took over the lifesaving procedure, stabilized Ludwig and, by the time they got him in the ambulance, he was talking, although he doesn’t remember it.
Ludwig was taken to OSF St. Elizabeth in Ottawa, later transferred to a hospital in Rockford and eventually had a defibrillator installed in his chest, but he is alive and well thanks to his quick-thinking, quick-acting co-workers and the CPR training they’d received at their worksite.
“I tell you what,” Ludwig said, “everybody I’ve talked to, all the doctors, all the nurses, all the critical care people, all said the same thing – even the guy in the ambulance with me on the way to Rockford. They said [my co-workers] did a fantastic job. … I know any one of the people I work with would have jumped right in there to help. It happened to be them, and I really appreciate what they did for me.
“I don’t know if other companies in the area are considering a program like that or have AEDs, [but] I’m proof it’s a good idea to have those on-site. They really paid off, especially for me.”
The importance of CPR classes is not lost on the Ottawa Fire Department, which whole-heartedly supports in-house training programs like that at Pilkington because they can save lives when mere minutes matter.
“We’ve been trying to get CPR classes out into the community, but this is a real example of how this training works and how it can save a life,” Ottawa Fire Chief Brian Bressner said. “Hopefully we’ll get more people to see that the Ottawa Fire Department is doing a CPR class and want to get involved.
“For us, reaching someone who has gone into cardiac arrest, the survival rate is less than 10% because we’re not right there when it happens. It takes some time for us to get there … but over the last couple of years, since we’ve upgraded our CPR classes to paramedic level, we’ve seen five or six people who’ve experienced cardiac arrest come home alive. That’s huge.”
Baldwin and DePue said once they saw Ludwig on the ground, it didn’t take long for the training to kick in.
“I came around the corner and saw Guy on the ground. Becky was already on her way there as well,” Baldwin said. “We got there about the same time and tried reviving him, asking him if he was OK, but he couldn’t respond. So Becky went to get the AED right down the hallway. We applied it, shocking him once, and then started compressions. After three rounds of compressions, we could see him start to come back. By the time he was in the ambulance, he was talking.
“We’ve had practices and classes, but obviously it’s totally different when it’s a real person, not a dummy. Instinct just kicked in, but if we didn’t have the training, the instinct just isn’t there. We’re glad we had it.”
DePue said having the AEDs spread throughout the plant was key, in addition to the training.
“I have to admit that at times it’s like pulling teeth to get people to show up for the CPR classes because it takes time out of their day and they don’t think they’ll ever use it,” said DePue, who teaches the classes. “But since this happened, people are coming up to me and asking when the next class is. I think this scared them a little bit, and now they want to be ready just in case.”
Bressner said his department is happy to conduct CPR classes for the public and to work with companies that want training and equipment for their employees.
“It’s nice to see that when our guys pull up for a call for a person unresponsive that CPR is being done the right way,” Bressner said. “It makes our jobs easier knowing that they have the trained personnel on hand here. We hope other companies see this and realize this works. This saves lives.”