It started as a lesson on heart attacks, then became one.
Karl Arps was demonstrating the signs of a heart attack during a training course at Fox Valley Technical College in Appleton, Wisconsin, on March 25 when he actually had one and went into cardiac arrest.
The 72-year-old instructor said the last thing he remembers is feeling dizzy and hearing a student say he did not look right. The next thing he remembers is waking up in an ambulance.
“From what I was told, they did everything like we told them to do in CPR class,” Arps told As It Happens host Nil Köksal. “Thank you does not seem enough. They saved my life, period.”
Student Logan Lehrer, a firefighter training as an Emergency Medical Technician, said he knew something was wrong when Arps’s hand curled outward, his face was contorted and he began snoring.
For a second, Lehrer said he thought it might be a joke or a test, but then “he felt a pit in his stomach.”
The students called over another instructor, Traci Blondeau. She tried to “snap him out of it,” and soon realized he was not acting.
“That’s immediately when we started responding to the situation,” Lehrer said.
Lehrer called 911 while the others attended to Arps. Under the guidance of their instructor, they took turns administering CPR and a defibrillator until first responders arrived. Six students were involved in the response.
“We all had our tasks, and we all knew what to do,” Lehrer said. “There was not a student out there that was fumbling.”
Within minutes, first responders from Gold Cross Ambulance and Greenville First Responders arrived.
“The early recognition that Karl was in cardiac arrest, along with the immediate actions taken by FVTC students and staff, directly contributed to Mr. Arps’s positive outcome,” Nick Romenesko, executive director of Gold Cross Ambulance, wrote in an email.
According to the American Red Cross, fewer than 10 percent of people survive cardiac arrest outside hospital, but the survival rate can triple for people treated with CPR and a portable defibrillator by bystanders.
“The students and staff involved should be incredibly proud of this outcome,” Romenesko said.
Arps, who underwent triple-bypass surgery in hospital, said he is amazed he is even alive.
“I’ve been in practice for a quarter of a century, and I can count the number of CPR saves that I’ve had on one hand. [Sometimes] we get a pulse back in the ambulance or on scene, but the person ends up passing away two or three days later in the hospital,” Arps said. “I had a heart attack, I had the surgery, and I walked out of that hospital seven days later.”
Arps said he is now recovering and hopes to return to work in a few months. He has been back to the school twice to visit his students.
“I was able to give each one of my students a life-saving pin that the college provided and give them a little sugary treat that I brought in saying thank you,” he said.
Lehrer said the experience taught him a lot about staying cool while responding to emergency situations.
Arps said it also showed him his students were paying attention.
“I often think, are they just taking up space in this classroom, or are they actually listening? Well, now I know they’re actually listening and they’re paying attention,” he said. “And thank God that they were there.”
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