Off-duty firefighters, Kroger workers save Nevada man

MARION – Done with his dental appointment on the east side of Marion, the 73-year-old Nevada man got in the car he'd borrowed from his son and began to drive home.

Larry Snodgrass knew his wife needed the car to pick up their daughter-in-law from work, but he also knew his home wasn't especially close to a grocery store and he wanted to buy bread and milk, so he made a side trip to Kroger at 1608 Marion-Mount Gilead Road.

"The bread aisle is one of the first things you come to, and basically that's where it happened," Snodgrass said.

Four or so hours later, Snodgrass woke up in the intensive care unit at OhioHealth Marion General Hospital recovering from cardiac arrest.

He credits Cory Radebaugh, Jesse Smith and others for saving his life that day.

Radebaugh and Smith, both off-duty First Consolidated Fire District firefighters, were working their jobs at Kroger, where Radebaugh, 28, is employed full time as an assistant-drug/general merchandise, and Smith, 20, is a part-time employee.

Recalling the events surrounding the heart attack, Snodgrass said, "There's always somebody where you want to be. Whatever you're looking for in the store there's always someone. I was in a bit of a hurry, so I walked around her. She was standing by the bread, and I was looking for the little sliders that I buy. ... I didn't see them so I started to walk back behind her, and that's where I collapsed.

"I do remember that I was completely dizzy," he said. "I don't know how to describe the heart attack. I was just dizzy and as I collapsed I had no control, nothing worked, so I fell straight down. I must have kind of sat up on the floor, because eventually I fell back and hit my head on the floor. ... From there Cory Radebaugh stepped in and took over."

Seconds to react

Radebaugh, an emergency medical technician-basic and also a Pleasant Township firefighter, remembered he was talking to a customer "and someone came and got me. Normally when someone gets me and then management I know usually something medically is wrong or someone fell and got hurt. I went over and noticed Larry had fallen. I could tell something was wrong with him. I was sitting there talking to him," telling him Kroger had contacted the Marion Township Fire Department. "I told him, 'I'd at least like you to get checked out. I just want to make sure you're OK.'

"The next thing you know, all of a sudden, he fell limp," he said, and referred to Smith, who'd headed to the bread aisle to help. "I said, 'Jesse, does he have a pulse? ... I don't see a a chest rise-and-fall.'"

Smith tilted Snodgrass' head to open his airway "and I started compressions and after one round of compressions he started to come back. Something wasn't right, but you could tell he didn't need CPR anymore. We rolled him on his side, Marion Township got there and took care of him the rest of the way."

"I know they had to do a lot, as well," Radebaugh said. "The doctor said he didn't have minutes, he only had seconds, until the squad got there."

Smith, a paramedic, said he was "working up front on the register, and someone came up and said, 'Someone's bleeding from the mouth' and wasn't responsive. I went to check on him. He was awake and conscious, but he wasn't super-oriented. He was bleeding from the mouth, and we were talking with him (when) he went unresponsive." One round of CPR compressions, and Snodgrass' pulse returned, and Marion Township emergency squad personnel took over treatment and transported him to the hospital.

Snodgrass apologized that he couldn't provide more information about his experience, praising Radebaugh, Smith and other medical personnel for Marion Township and Marion General Hospital for the treatment he received.

"So it had to be my good fortune that day that Cory was there," he said. "And, of course, from there I got great care."

Defibrillators in use

Describing the defibrillator used to restore his heart beat, he said medical personnel used "some kind of electronic paddles. I don't know what you call them, but they're not real pleasant, I'll tell you. From there on I gave up. I realized I was in a pretty desperate way. ... I lost my eyesight, and I couldn't move, but I could still hear. At that point I let myself go. I wasn't in so much pain. I figured if this is death, it's easy. ... The whole procedure from start to finish even at the hospital, it's nothing I would recommend for a vacation or anything, but it was as well done as I could ask for anywhere."

With the help of Snodgrass's daughter, Laura Light, who contacted him through Facebook, Radebaugh visited Snodgrass at the hospital two days after the near-death experience.

"He came to the hospital to visit me afterward, and I thought that was way above and beyond," Snodgrass said. "He brought me a card signed by the employees on duty that day at Kroger. It was a cute card, a turtle with a Band-Aid on it. I thought that was way above and beyond the duty of the gentleman."

Rewarding feeling

The meeting meant a lot to both men.

"I'm a pretty tough guy," Snodgrass said. "I'm not very emotional, but emotions did come out. I gave the best 'thanks' I can remember. I got tears in my eyes. It was just an emotional meeting. I don't know how Cory felt. Like I told you, it was above and beyond anything that would be expected of any EMT or anything. ... Things like that aid in your recovery. It gives you good feelings."

Radebaugh said helping Snodgrass and meeting him later was a rare experience.

"That's one of the things about fire service and EMS, it kind of sucks because you do CPR or something for somebody, and you never hear from them, good, bad or different. It was nice to hear something. He kept joking, 'I told the doctor I was going to thump the guy that was thumping on my chest.'"

"I've helped do CPR other times at work," he said. "I guess I feel it's different when I'm at the fire department where I have other paramedics with me. There all I had was my knowledge and my hands" and Smith.

"Honestly, it's not anything really big to me," said Smith, a Tri-Rivers Career Center public safety service graduate. "I've been trying to learn how to do this since high school. It's kind of second-nature, all pretty basic stuff. ... I'm just glad I was there to be able to help him."

Snodgrass's wife, Janet, was glad, too.

"We were very thankful for that, very thankful," she said, adding fondly that the family was happy Snodgrass was able to meet Radebaugh after the incident. "We were so glad because that way we got to thank him personally."

jjarvis@marionstar.com

740-375-5154

Twitter: @jmwjarvis