Feb. 20, 2024 – When Billy Frolick, 63, collapsed in the Charlotte Douglas International Airport in North Carolina, fate was on his side. It just so happened that Lauren Westafer, DO, an emergency room doctor, was catching a connecting flight at a nearby gate.
Westafer knew that she needed to start CPR, and fast. She turned to the flight attendant and asked for the nearest AED -- an“I was pretty rude and I said, ‘This is an airport. There is an AED. I don’t know where the nearest one is. Ask somebody, check the walls, run down the aisles until you find one,’” Westafer said.to have AEDs. They are often red and kept in a white metal box attached to a wall. Westafer said the flight attendant returned very quickly with an AED in hand.
Chest compressions were also an extremely crucial part of Frolick’s resuscitation. Seven of his ribs broke in the process – which isn’t– one which cut his liver. Frolick had technically died for those 10 minutes, but every 30 to 45 seconds during CPR, he’d start to move his hands or flex his knees.“The goal I had was getting a shock as quickly as possible because the longer your heart is in this funky rhythm and you can’t shock, it’s going to devolve into a rhythm you can’t shock.
“I was popping nitroglycerin like they were Tic Tacs” Frolick said. “In the Charlotte airport between flights, I felt the tightness, took the nitro, and it was the last thing I remember until staring up at three doctors from a hospital bed.”requiring AEDs in gyms specifically, we see higher rates of bystanders even just applying the AED to individuals in cardiac arrest,” said Chan. “But we’d like to see that percentage be higher.