Survivor Day highlights heroic efforts that saved lives
A packed house of emergency responders and 13 cardiac arrest survivors were honoured Friday afternoon at Fanshawe College.
Among them was Jim Kinsmen. Kinsmen was golfing last summer, had no symptoms or signs, but as he putted out on the 18th hole, he fell to the ground.
“I don't remember anything. Hardly till the next morning. I remember hearing a siren once, and I did remember somebody asked me at the hospital if I knew I was at the hospital, and I kind of took for granted that,” Kinsmen said.
Peter Desjardine was one of the attending paramedics and remembers that day clearly.
“We just rolled up onto the scene at the last hole of the course there for [Jim] and the bystanders doing CPR for him, doing an excellent job doing what they could to help him before we got there,” said Desjardine.
Friday was the first time Kinsmen was able to meet Desjardines.
“I'm really looking forward to meeting people that helped me out or I wouldn't be here,” Kinsmen said before the event.
For Desjardines, who greeted his former patient with a smile and shared a few laughs in a touching moment, wished this was the outcome for every call he attends.
“It's probably one of the best feelings you ever get. It's not very often when you're on a cardiac arrest that you have a survivor and having the opportunity to give them closure and have closure for yourself to see how things have come out since that eventful day, it's just amazing.,” said Desjardine. “It gives you that sense of well-being and that you did a great job.”
This is one of many stories, but according to Middlesex London Paramedic Service, it is in the vast minority. Only 5 per cent of people who suffer a sudden cardiac arrest outside of a hospital will survive.
"We have to remember, in some cases, they don't often know what has happened to that patient. So to be able to celebrate and have this reunion in some ways brings closure for them," Middlesex County Warden Cathy Burghardt-Jesson said.
There are up to 40,000 cardiac arrests each year in Canada, one every 13 minutes.
Of those cardiac arrests, 85 per cent happen outside of a hospital.
Kinsmen knows he's fortunate
“Yeah, it's a little bit slower. I'm still getting out, doing a few holes of golf. I'm trying to enjoy life as much as possible,” he said.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Grandparent scam: London, Ont., senior beats fraudsters not once, but twice
It was a typical Tuesday for Mabel Beharrell, 84, until she got the call that would turn her world upside down. Her teenaged grandson was in trouble and needed her help.
Deaths of 4 people on Sask. farm confirmed as murder-suicide
The deaths of four people on a farm near the Saskatchewan village of Neudorf have been confirmed a murder-suicide.
CRA no longer requiring 'bare trust' reporting in 2023 tax return
The Canada Revenue Agency announced Thursday it will not require 'bare trust' reporting from Canadians that it introduced for the 2024 tax season, just four days before the April 2 deadline.
Full parole granted to man convicted in notorious 'McDonald's murders' in Cape Breton
The Parole Board of Canada has granted full parole to one of three men convicted in the brutal murders of three McDonald's restaurant workers in Cape Breton more than 30 years ago.
Incident on Calgary's Reconciliation Bridge comes to safe resolution
Nearly 20 hours after a man climbed and remained perched on top of the Reconciliation Bridge in downtown Calgary, the situation came to a peaceful resolution.
Sunshine list: These were the Ontario public sector's highest earners in 2023
Ontario released its annual sunshine list Thursday afternoon, noting that the largest year-over-year increases were in hospitals, municipalities, and post-secondary sectors.
George Washington family secrets revealed by DNA from unmarked 19th century graves
Genetic analysis has shed light on a long-standing mystery surrounding the fates of U.S. President George Washington's younger brother Samuel and his kin.
'We won't forget': How some Muslims view Poilievre's stance on Israel-Hamas war
A spokesman for a regional Muslim advocacy group says Conservative Leader Pierre Poilievre's stance on the Israel-Hamas war could complicate his party's relationship with Muslim Canadians.
Why some Christians are angry about Trump's 'God Bless the USA' Bible
Former U.S. President Donald Trump is officially selling a copy of the Bible themed to Lee Greenwood’s famous song, 'God Bless the USA.' But the concept of a Bible covered in the American flag has raised concern among religious circles.