Medical technology, emergency training and courage combined in the right place at the right time in Dunlap, Tenn., for a woman who fell unconscious at a local industry and her heart appeared to stop beating.
When Dunlap police officers Mark Fyfe and Ben Hayne got to Unipower two minutes after the initial call, four of Irene Higgins' coworkers already had started CPR and retrieved an automated external defibrillator, or AED, to try to restore her heartbeat.
Higgins' coworkers, Benny Barnett, Paul Elliott, Nancy Herron and Chris Johnson, had taken the AED down from a wall at the plant, hooked it up to Higgins and shocked her once while performing CPR for several minutes. That's when Fyfe and Hayne got there with Dunlap Lt. Coy Swanger and Sequatchie County sheriff's detectives Jody Lockhart and Steven Billingsley arriving just after them.
Hayne, who is a licensed paramedic, and Fyfe took over from the Unipower foursome. Hayne began inserting an IV while Billingsley took over chest compressions and Lockhart helped Higgins breathe.
"During the course of these events, the patient received three additional defibrillations from the AED," Dunlap Police Chief Clint Huth said. "After the last defibrillation, the patient regained a pulse and had shallow respiration."
Swanger called for Erlanger hospital's Life Force helicopter to meet them at Erlanger Sequatchie's facility on the north end of town while Hayne prepared to insert a breathing tube to maintain Higgins' airway as personnel from Pickett EMS arrived. While Hayne and Puckett officials made their way to Erlanger Sequatchie with Higgins, Hayne finished intubating Higgins before she was placed on the helicopter, according to Huth.
Higgins' personal physician, Dr. Allison Bailey, called Higgins' revival "a one-in-a-million case," Huth said.
The nine impromptu heroes were recognized last Wednesday at Unipower for their lifesaving actions. The AED was returned to its post, ready to save another life, officials said.
An automated external defibrillator is a portable device that checks the heart rhythm and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm in cases of sudden cardiac arrest, according to the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute at the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
"AEDs are wonderful things," said Sheriff Ronnie Hitchcock, also an emergency medical technician since 1971. "We're looking at how to round up some money to acquire some. I would like to be able to put one in every patrol car we have."
Hitchcock, who finally let his EMT license expire in January, said he's studying ways to fund the equipment and training for the department.
When people who have training in use of an AED are in the right place at the right time, a life could be saved that might otherwise be lost, he said.
Contact staff writer Ben Benton at bbenton@timesfreepress.com or twitter.com/BenBenton or www.facebook.com/ben.benton1 or 423-757-6569.