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Scott Schwarting, middle, gives Basalt Police Officer Jason Hegberg a hug Tuesday during a ceremony honoring first responders for saving lives of three cardiac arrest victims this year. Hegberg performed CPR on Schwarting. Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Chief Scott Thoompson looks on.
Scott Condon/The Aspen Times
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Scott Akin, right, thanks Snowmass Village Police Chief Brian Olson for his role in helping save Akin’s life after he suffered cardiac arrest in January.
Scott Condon/The Aspen Times
Dr. Scott Akin knew he was dying on the front porch of his family’s Snowmass Village home on Jan. 12.
His wife asked him if she needed to call 911.
“I said, ‘Yeah, absolutely,’” Akin recalled Tuesday. “I knew if we got in the car to try to make it to the hospital, I would have died in the car. It’s that feeling of impending death that I hope you never have to experience, but when it comes, you know it and it’s real.”
Paramedics from Roaring Fork Fire Rescue responded to the residence within three minutes, picked Akin off the icy ground and helped him to an ambulance. While dashing through Basalt en route to Valley View Hospital in Glenwood Springs, Akin went into full cardiac arrest.
Paramedics performed CPR and undertook other emergency care to keep Akin alive. He was in the catheterization laboratory for assessment at Valley View less than one hour after his wife made the 911 call.
At the fire station Tuesday morning in El Jebel, Akin recounted the experience in emotional testimony to a packed house of police and medical first responders, communication dispatchers and others responsible for pre-hospital care. Akin said he made a full recovery with no neurological damage. He thanked all involved for a flawless performance while responding to his incident.
“That’s 100 percent why I had a good outcome,” he said. “Everything that had to go right went right — quick intervention, quick CPR, quickly (transported) to the cath lab.
“I’m standing here today because of you guys — your response times, your reactions. You acted absolutely flawlessly, everything you did, each and every one of you. I wanted to give you guys credit for doing your jobs at the absolute highest level of excellence.”
Akin then delivered an inspirational line that most workers will never hear in a lifetime: “If there is ever a day that any of you question why you do what you do, I’m the reason, so thank you very much.”
What made the Akin’s incident remarkable was it was one of three lifesaving actions taken this year involving cardiac arrest victims in Snowmass Village and Basalt — the two communities where the combined Roaring Fork Fire Rescue operates.
Scott Schwarting, a doctor of veterinary medicine, had an experience that was equally as stirring. Speaking at Tuesday’s gathering, the 45-year-old Schwarting said he returned home after working out at a gym and experienced an unusual feeling that started in his chest, moved down his arms and into his face. He realized he needed help so he went to Aspen Valley Hospital After Hours Medical Care in Basalt.
Shortly after arriving, he went into full cardiac arrest. Nearby doctors and Basalt police officer Jason Hegberg were the first responders and administered lifesaving CPR and defibrillation before the ambulance arrived. Paramedics provided critical care while taking him to Valley View.
“Everything fell into place exactly the way it needed to,” Schwarting said. “It’s humbling and the sense of gratitude that I have is overwhelming.”
Schwarting said he also fully recovered from the incident. He noted that the multiple cases of live-saving actions speak well about the system and personnel in place in the Roaring Fork Valley.
A third victim, an 81-year-old New York City resident who spends time in Snowmass Village, was walking his bicycle up the steep Snowmelt Road in Snowmass this summer when he went into cardiac arrest. Snowmass Police Chief Brian Olson and Officer Dave Heivly started CPR and used the defibrillator to treat the man until the ambulance crew arrived. The man returned to New York and is “back to normal,” according to his wife, Heivly.
A total of 31 people — from dispatchers to doctors — were awarded Tuesday with American Heart Association Heartsaver Hero Awards for their roles in the three incidents.
In addition to the Heartsaver Hero Awards, lifesaving commendations were granted to some of the first responders. Hegberg and paramedic David Klebes were credited with their second lifesaving actions during their careers.
Richard Cornelius, a division chief for Roaring Fork Fire Rescue, coordinated the awards ceremony and received one himself for actions in the bicyclist’s incident.
“Often times we don’t have favorable outcomes when we’re treating victims of cardiac arrest,” Cornelius said.
Nationally, only about 10 percent of victims of sudden cardiac arrest survive. The key is a “chain of survival” that features someone picking up a phone and seeking help early in the incident, early CPR and defibrillation, and early access to advanced life support.
“Every minute that you delay care — that’s delaying CPR, delaying defibrillation — the victim’s chances of survival go down 7 to 10 percent,” Cornelius said. To have three victims not only survive but be discharged with no brain injury is extremely rare, he said.
The ceremony wrapped up with a short, powerful comment by Roaring Fork Fire Rescue Chief Scott Thompson. He recalled that Akin stopped by the fire station a few days after he was released from the hospital last winter and told him, “The biggest thing for me is my sons still have their father.”
“To this day, I still think about that,” an emotional Thompson said. “Everybody in this room has impacted three families in a huge way. You should be very proud and it should motivate you to move forward.”