NEWS

Golfing buddies celebrate life-saving effort

Joe Williams
Reporter
Randy Albertson, 65, credits a friend with saving his life by applying CPR after his heart stopped on the golf course this past August. Here, he shares a moment with his dog Zoey.

COSHOCTON - Randy Albertson remembers little about the day his heart stopped and he collapsed on the 12th tee of the Hickory Flats Golf Course, south of West Lafayette.

But Albertson, 65, of Jackson Township, said he knows that if his opponent, Gibson "Gib" Reiss, had not started CPR on him immediately "the chances of me being here now would be very slim."

CPR saved his life, Albertson said.

"If I hadn't been playing golf with people who knew how to perform CPR, I wouldn't be here today, or I wouldn't have been right, with having to wait," he said.

This summer, Gibson "Gib" Reiss used his CPR training to help save his golfing opponent, whose heart had stopped on the 12th tee.

Reiss, 72, of Bethlehem Township, said he learned cardiopulmonary resuscitation about 20 years ago when he started working in the sign department of West Chester Township in Butler County. He retired in 2006 and had never used his training until Aug. 4 of this year, just after Albertson said he wasn't feeling well and then fell to the ground.

Reiss and Albertson compete against each other a couple of times a year in the Tuesday league at the course. Before this past summer, Albertson said he had never had any heart trouble, did not suffer from high blood pressure and had no difficulty breathing.

"The only medicine I took was for cholesterol," he said. "Now I've got several. Hopefully, it's short-term."

That Tuesday in August, Albertson had no pulse and wasn't breathing after he collapsed. Reiss said he told another golfer to call 911 and started CPR as "soon as I rolled him over. When he went down, he went face down."

Before starting chest compressions, Reiss moved Albertson's tongue forward to clear his airway.

"I said Randy, stay with me. Randy, stay with me," Reiss said. "When I saw his eyes roll back, I would just press harder and quicker."

Reiss continued for almost 10 minutes before medics arrived, shocked Albertson's heart with a defibrillator and gave him advanced cardiac life support by administering life-saving drugs, according to Todd Shroyer, director of the Coshocton County Emergency Medical Services.

"CPR is a very physical procedure, and for Mr. Reiss to have done it for as long as he did and effectively as he did is remarkable," Shroyer said.

Medics typically trade off compressing a patient's chest every two or three minutes, Shroyer said.

Reiss said he doesn't think he could have continued much longer.

"I said, 'You'd have been any later, you might have had to use it on me,' because I was tired," Reiss said he told medics.

"We're so grateful," Albertson's wife Linda said. "By golly, Gib Reiss knew what he was doing; that's all I can say. He kept it going."

By compressing Albertson's chest, Reiss kept his blood circulating and his organs and tissue alive "until we could get his pulse back," Shroyer said.

"It was definitely a team effort all the way through," Shroyer said.

The American Heart Association promotes a chain of survival for patients who suffer sudden cardiac arrest, Shroyer said. That chain encompasses early recognition and calling 911, early CPR, rapid defibrillation, and rapid advanced cardiac life support. All four of those links were completed in Albertson's case, leading to his recovery, Shroyer said while awarding Reiss with a Lifesaver Award during the Nov. 16 meeting of the Coshocton County commissioners.

"All the awards, all the plaques, all the prizes, my award's standing right here beside me," Reiss said.

Shroyer said many people who suffer sudden cardiac arrest in rural areas do not always survive because medics have to travel so far to assist them.

"People need to be aware of that and use CPR to help save someone's life," Coshocton County Commissioner Dane Shryock said.

Medics transported Albertson via emergency helicopter to Genesis Hospital in Zanesville, where they inserted two stents and got his heart pumping again, Linda Albertson said. He then remained unconscious for several days in the hospital. Doctors told her he was not brain dead, but they were uncertain what his function level would be after he did regain consciousness.

These days, Albertson is recovering. He undergoes cardio rehab three times a week. He wears a life vest, which contains a defibrillator to shock his heart should it stop again. He's scheduled to have one implanted in his side Dec. 2.

He plans to rejoin his golf league next year.

"I'm planning on playing next year," he said. "I'm not sure who'll want to play with me. They might be a little gun-shy."

jwilliams6@gannett.com

740-295-3417

Twitter: @JoeAdvocate

Learn more

To sign up for a CPR class, call the American Red Cross at 800-733-2767 or go to www.redcross.org.