By Jeff Hansel
jhansel@postbulletin.com
Patrick Fitzsimmons, 44, of Rochester is now healthy.
"It took near-death for me to realize that I hadn't been taking care of myself," he said.
At age 40, Fitzsimmons' heart stopped. He was rescued by a co-worker and a sheriff's deputy who used an automated external defibrillator.
People brought back to life with defibrillators survive just as long as those with similar conditions who haven't had cardiac arrest. They also have good quality of life, Mayo Clinic researchers have shown in the New England Journal of Medicine. Past research showed the earlier a defibrillator is used, the better the chances for the victim.
"(The report) says near-normal quality of life. Mine's been far better since (the defibrillator was used)," Fitzsimmons said.
Rochester police officer Jay Lonien, who like all Rochester officers and county deputies has a defibrillator in his squad car, said they are used when a heart stops -- not during a heart attack, when the heart still is beating.
"You just hook the defibrillator up and then you shock them," he said. It's good for law enforcement, firefighters and ambulance crews to have defibrillators, he said, because they can be on the scene within minutes. Using a defibrillator within one minute helps 90 percent of people survive, the police department said.
"I've been here four years, and I think it's three people I've saved that I've used the defibrillator on," Lonien said.
Dr. Roger White, a Mayo anesthesiologist, was instrumental in getting the police force to be first in the nation to embrace the automated external defibrillators in 1990. For years, it has been reported that Rochester's defibrillator survival rate is the highest in the nation.
Peter Czok, 57, of Rochester, said his quality of life has diminished since his cardiac arrest at age 50. He said he lost short-term memory, and there might have been other unforeseen damage.
But, he said, "I'm sure a lot better than being dead."
White said people in ventricular fibrillation, which is treatable with the defibrillator, with unwitnessed cardiac arrest survive and are discharged from the hospital about 24 percent of the time.
"Patients who aren't found in that rhythm we aren't able to help," he said.
Those who have a witnessed arrest in Rochester with the same condition are discharged nearly 45 percent of the time. That means many people are alive today as a result of White's work.
"I can say this is truly the most gratifying thing that I have done as a physician," he said.
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