With A Little Help From Her Friends

Former Mentor Dispatcher Trained To Provide CPR Instruction
Finds Herself On The Receiving End of Life-Saving Care

By Ron Hollowell

In the eye of the storm, Deb Kloski always was a stalwart – a calming voice of reassurance as she provided crucial lifesaving cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions to 9-1-1 callers to the Mentor Fire Department. The dispatcher with nearly 20 years of experience never imagined that she would one day find herself in a life or death situation and her Mentor Fire Department Station 3 cohorts frantically working to save her life.

Yet this circumstance presented itself on Nov. 5, 2006 when Kloski found herself not feeling right. She still cannot fully explain the nature of what ailed her that Sunday evening, only that she wasn’t in pain but was feeling extremely anxious. Call it intuition, but Kloski decided to telephone her friends at Station 3 and asked that they stop by her Deepwood home in Mentor to monitor her condition.

What paramedics Brent Luthanen, Dan Garey, Pete Surckla, and Lt. Ron Zak thought would be a routine call turned out to be anything but. Each was stunned by what they encountered upon entering their friend’s home. They discovered Kloski in a seated position on the floor with her head tilted and her back against a couch. She was unresponsive when they called her name. The paramedics quickly realized that the 39-year-old dispatcher was unconscious and in a state of ventricular defibrillation -- the result of a massive heart attack.

Ventricular defibrillation is a condition in which the heart's electrical activity becomes disordered, Zak said. When this type of activity occurs, the heart's lower pumping chambers contract and shake in a rapid, unsynchronized manner. The heart pumps little or no blood.

When efforts failed to resuscitate Kloski using CPR, she was placed on a heart monitor and the paramedics administered nine separate electrical shock treatments. The paramedics’ desperate attempt to save Kloski offered a glimmer of hope – her heart was shocked into a state of asystole, or a standstill with no cardiac output.

While the Mentor emergency medical services team transported Kloski to LakeWest Hospital in Willoughby, she was intubated. She also received intravenous fluids and medications to improve her condition. Within minutes of arriving at LakeWest Hospital, Kloski was shocked again, this time with some degree of success. Her heart had a regular rhythm.

“We got her back,” Zak said. “I’ve been in a lot of difficult situations during my 16-year career, but trying to save Deb was one of the toughest. We ran this call just like we would on any other Mentor resident, but this one in particular affected us because it involved someone we worked with and knew well.”

Teamwork the key to survival

When the Mentor EMS squad arrived at LakeWest Hospital’s Emergency Department, Kloski immediately received proper care and treatment to stabilize her condition. Although she wasn’t out of the danger zone, she was comfortable and positioned for a recovery.

The communication and teamwork between the Mentor EMS squad and LakeWest Hospital’s ER staff provided for a seamless transition in Kloski’s care. Her teammates with the Mentor Fire Department and LakeWest Hospital didn’t fail her. They saved her life.

Patti Willson, RN, Lake Hospital System’s EMS coordinator and a paramedic, knows how integral teamwork is to helping patients survive medical emergencies. She conducts monthly informational sessions with the EMS squads throughout Lake County so that each knows what is going on at LakeWest Hospital and LakeEast Hospital in Painesville. Her updates include overviews of the latest hospital procedures.

Willson spends three days each month visiting with every shift at fire stations throughout Lake County to conduct these sessions. She also meets with the fire chiefs to share similar items of information that help to build the rapport between Lake Hospital System and the departments.

In an effort to further strengthen the working relationship with each fire department, Lake Hospital System implemented a Mobile Intensive Care Nursing (MICN) program. The program requires all ER nurses and technicians to complete eight hours of class work and eight hours of ride time with an EMS squad, Willson said. Nurses and technicians must complete this program before they can answer calls into the ER.

“This program enables the ER staff to see what the job is like from the EMS squad’s perspective,” Willson said. “The program also helps to build and to strengthen the relationship between the nurses, techs and the EMS workers.”

By building a cohesive bond between the fire departments and their EMS units, Lake Hospital System helps to ensure quality care and procedures are administered at every step along a person’s care path the moment they become ill.

A reversal of roles

Kloski found herself in the ironic position of being on the receiving end of the medical attention that she regularly provided to callers in emergency situations. Prior to her own medical emergency, Kloski said she always tried to eat well and get plenty of exercise; a heart attack was the farthest occurrence from her mind.

“All I can say is that I wasn’t feeling quite right that night,” said Kloski, who is now retired and suffers from memory loss. “I just wanted the squad to come by and check my condition. These same guys that I work with every day were now in a position to save my life. They didn’t expect to find me nearly dead on the floor. They thought they were simply coming over to help me out.”

Kloski said that any time a person doesn’t feel normal, they should immediately seek medical attention. This action could save their life.

‘They gave me back my life’

When it comes to expressing her heart-felt appreciation for the expedient care she received at LakeWest Hospital, Kloski admits that she doesn’t know where to start dispensing her gratitude. From her former colleagues at the Mentor Fire Department who worked on her en route to LakeWest Hospital to the expert medical care provided by the ER staff once she arrived at the hospital, Kloski embraces everyone who worked so diligently to save her life.

“I owe my life to the people in LakeWest Hospital’s ER,” Kloski said. “I don’t know all of the people and I don’t know all of their names. But they didn’t give up on me even though I was dead. They took excellent care of my family and me throughout my hospital stay. The nurses continually provided my family with updates on my condition and were simply terrific.

“Not only did the people at LakeWest Hospital help to bring me back to life, but they gave me back my life.”