Health & Fitness
Kaiser Permanente cardiac techs save life on remote forest road
Well-known Santa Cruz County bicyclist suffers cardiac arrest, thanks 2 Kaiser Permanente bicycling techs for saving his life with CPR.
A 62-year-old Aptos bicycle enthusiast is lucky to be alive thanks to the quick action of a pair of Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara cardiac radiology techs who helped save the man’s life.
Nurses Geoff Glasspool and Peter Szpara, who work in the cardiac care unit at Kaiser Permanente Santa Clara, were on a recent bike ride when they came upon a bicyclist who had fallen by the side of the road near the entrance to Nisene Marks Forest in Santa Cruz County.
“We saw him down and did what we’re trained to do,” Glasspool said.” We checked for his pulse and started CPR.”
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That action kept Dave Smith’s blood circulating and ultimately saved his life.
“They were my angels,” said Smith, who doesn’t remember anything about the incident.
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Smith had been out bicycling with a nurse friend so all three of them were switching off performing powerful chest compressions on Smith as they waited for first responders to arrive.
“We were very lucky to have extra hands to switch off doing CPR,” Szpara said.
“Performing high-quality CPR requires a lot of strength and a few minutes of doing it can seem like forever,” Glasspool agreed.
Smith, a Kaiser Permanente member, had collapsed and crashed his bicycle near a guard shack at the entrance to the forest, and a park ranger inside was able to call 911 using a cell phone.
On a break from CPR, Szpara, who also does per diem work at the local hospital, used his own cell phone to alert the hospital of the situation.
When the ambulance and fire truck arrived, EMT’s immediately pulled out their AED and started working on Smith.
“They had to shock him four times,” Szpara said. “And his heart finally started beating normally again while he was being loaded into the ambulance.”
At the local hospital, Smith had an electronic pacemaker and defibrillator implanted, then he was connected with his Kaiser Permanente care team in San Jose for follow-up care.
Smith said the incident was a wake-up call for him.
“I admit I hadn’t been feeling well for a while (before the cardiac arrest), but continued working and living carelessly. But now I’m following my doctor’s orders, eating right and being more careful.”
He said he will always be grateful to the Kaiser Permanente cardiac radiology techs who treated him on the side of that remote road.