Airman assists first responders

KITTERY, ME, UNITED STATES

02.01.2014

Courtesy Story

101st Air Refueling Wing

KITTERY, Maine - It was late in the afternoon on the Saturday of February Drill, and Maj. Clint Reed of the 265th Combat Communications Squadron was just leaving his office. The Mount Desert Island native had hung around a little late to go over some details with his officers, but was anxious to be headed south towards his family’s home in Kittery.

“I decided, after talking with my family, that we would all meet at a restaurant in Kittery near our home to grab some dinner,” Reed said, leaning back in his chair.

Reed’s family had arrived at the restaurant just before him, and when they saw him drive up, they headed inside to get a table.

“I parked my car and started walking up,” Reed said. “As I walked past the small bakery that’s directly beside the restaurant, a woman comes out and says, ‘Does anyone know CPR?’”

Reed quickened his pace, and covered the 30-40 yards to the bakery only to find an elderly woman lying prostrate on the ground just inside the door of the bakery. Reed carefully entered the bakery, and a bystander told him that the woman had simply dropped to the ground very suddenly. The bystander was seated on the floor next to the victim, holding her hand.

“I asked her how long [the victim] had been down," Reed recalls. “She told me it had only been a minute or two, but I could almost immediately see that [the victim] was not breathing, and I was unable to locate a pulse.”

Amongst the bystanders was a woman who identified herself as the victim’s daughter, and Reed quickly motioned for her and the rest of those assembled to move everyone back as much as possible as the bakery was very small and crowded.

“At that point, I immediately started with chest compressions,” Reed recalls. “After about 90 seconds of chest compressions, she began to breath very weakly.”

With no one else trained to assist, Reed continued with chest compressions for another few minutes until first responders from the Kittery Police Department arrived. As the officers worked to clear the room, Reed continued to perform chest compressions on the victim, and one of the officers left to retrieve an Automated External Defibrillator.

“When the officer returned with an AED he had gotten from the restaurant next door, we repositioned the woman and hooked her up to the device,” Reed said. “We used the AED, but alternated with continued chest compression until the ambulance arrived.”

When the paramedics did arrive, about six to eight minutes later, the victim had regained vital signs, with weak but steady breathing, and a pulse. Reed helped the paramedics lift the victim onto a stretcher and secure the safety harnesses.

“Its hard to think that only about 10 minutes had elapsed since I had parked my car,” Reed recalls, shaking his head. “You know, its ironic, we had just done our CPR refresher course the month before.”

With more than 25 years in the military, Reed had been trained in CPR and Self-Aid Buddy care at least every year for the entirety of his career, and when the critical moment finally came, he was ready.

“Classroom training of C.P.R. is one thing, actually putting that in to practice when the need arises is another thing,” said James Kenney, system commander for American Ambulance in Kittery. “Early CPR is absolutely vital to patient survivability. [You] cannot resuscitate a patient who has been down for too long in the field.”

Regrettably the patient ultimately succumbed to her injuries some time after arriving at York Hospital, but first responders credit Reed’s decisive actions with giving them a fighting chance.

“It can be said with a reasonable degree of certainty that without Maj. Reed's interventions, the patient would not have arrived at York Hospital with a pulse,” Kenney said. “[Reed’s] actions speak well of him personally and professionally and of the caliber of our servicemen and women in the Air National Guard.”

When I shared these sentiments with Maj. Reed, he sat back in his chair and thought for a moment, before once again pointing to the value of the training he has received throughout his career in the Air National Guard.

“The training that we get here in CPR and Self-Aid Buddy Care is tremendous, because these kinds of situations happen when you least expect it,” Reed said. “I would like every single airman to know that it is some of the most important training that we get here at the unit level.”

For Lt. Col. Robert Scott, Reed’s supervisor and commander of the 265th Combat Communications Squadron, Reed’s actions personify the citizen-airman ethos of the Maine Air National Guard.

“Major Reed's actions epitomize the ideal of the citizen airman,” Scott said. “Always ready to serve, at home or abroad.”

• Date Taken: 02.01.2014
• Date Posted: 02.12.2014 12:15
• Story ID: 120514
• Location: KITTERY, ME, US