\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOn March 27, 2024, at about 8 p.m. Mark Wickham was at the Lakefield Curling Club in Lakefield, Ontario, when an adult male was found collapsed on the ice, unconscious with vital signs absent. He had a cut on the bridge of his nose from his helmet as a result of his collapse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nEMS was immediately called, and the facility\u2019s AED was requested. It was located only 10 feet away from the site of the collapse.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nWith assistance of bystanders, the patient was moved off the ice. Mark rechecked the vital signs (still absent), and even tried physical and verbal stimulation, again with no response.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe AED was applied and CPR compressions started. The patient was a large, barrel-chested man and Mark was concerned about the depth of compressions and any associated damage that might happen. On the fifth compression Mark noted that the patient made loud guttural noises.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMark stopped chest compressions and observed and listened to his patient. He reported that these noises happened three times in short order although the patient was still unconscious. An assisting bystander reported that he could now feel a radial pulse and then suddenly the patient\u2019s eyes opened in a fixed stare at the ceiling. At that time the patient resumed breathing on his own, evident with the chest rising and falling.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMark provided verbal reassurance to his patient whose level of consciousness slowly improved over the course of several minutes. He was bewildered and after a while was able to talk quietly.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nShortly afterwards, four paramedics and a supervisor arrived and took over the scene, dealing with the local emergency room over the phone and sending data to the cardiologist over a link.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nMark continued to assist under the direction of EMS, maintaining head and neck stabilization, removing the patient\u2019s helmet, and assisting with application of a C-collar.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nThe patient was then transported to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre, where he remained overnight. After consulting with a cardiologist, he was released later that day to his home and family. His only complaint was a very sore chest.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nOn follow-up, the patient has no memory of the incident and was very grateful for the actions taken to save his life. In mid-April he had surgery for an atrial valve replacement and is doing well.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nBased on reports from the specialists, it is believed that the patient\u2019s faulty heart valve closed and got stuck in that position, blocking all blood flow in the body, which explains the sudden collapse on the ice and absence of vital signs. They believe the CPR compressions cleared the blockage and allowed the heart to re-establish its rhythm.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\nIn April 2024 Mark Wickham was recognized for his actions by the CSP Kawartha Zone and in September the CSP was pleased to recognize his efforts with the national CSP\u2019s John D. Harper Lifesaving Award.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n(l-r) Mark Wickham being presented with Kawartha Zone\u2019s Eric Nystedt Humanitarian Award by Rob Docherty in April, 2024 for his lifesaving actions (Photo by Greg Dell\u2019Agnese)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"By A.P. Crawford (ap.crawford@skipatrol.ca)\u00a0 On March 27, 2024, at about 8 p.m. Mark Wickham was at the Lakefield Curling Club in Lakefield, Ontario, when an adult male was found collapsed on the ice, unconscious with vital signs absent. He had<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6132,"featured_media":17534,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[389,511,217],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18501","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-389","category-november-2024","category-public-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18501","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6132"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18501"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18501\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18568,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18501\/revisions\/18568"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17534"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18501"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18501"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.skipatrol.ca\/newsletter\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18501"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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