Click here to return to the main UFT web site

Spring 2004

Four honored for using defibrillator to save a life

The nurses who saved his life were honored this spring, and lots of nurses know the story of what could have happened if not for them. But the story bears repeating, because lives depend on learning its lessons.

Nurses receive recognition from NYSUT for lifesaving work with AED. Seen with plaques and defibrillators are (front row, from left) Anne Goldman, RN; Hope Willocks, RN; Rachel Moyer; Rosemary Scheriff, RN; and Nancy Barth-Miller, RN.

It’s about a retired teacher who collapsed from cardiac arrest at last year’s New York State United Teachers convention. Already flat lining, his heart was started up again by four off-duty registered nurses who provided expert emergency care. The quartet, in attendance as union delegates, used a defibrillator which was a gift from a mother grateful for her union’s efforts to put the heart-reviving devices in every school.

“Herb Yules fell right in the doorway," remembers RN and UFT Special Rep Anne Goldman, one of the four credited with saving his life. "He seemed to be seizing. He had a cut over his left eye, he was still breathing and he had a pulse. Then he sat up, fighting for air." Within minutes, he became unconscious and sustained respiratory arrest. With no palpable pulse and with breathing ceased, Hope Willocks, RN and special rep, began mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Goldman did compressions.

"He was turning blue," said Nancy Barth Miller, an RN at Staten Island University Hospital who had also rushed over to help. "We were screaming, ‘We’re losing him, we’re losing him! Call 911 and get the defibrillator.’"

Up stepped Aaron Bifaro, who works with NYSUT Travel and Conference Services. NYSUT staff had been alerted that the union’s Automatic External Defibrillator would be brought to the convention, so Bifaro knew right where to go. By the time he raced back with the defibrillator, Yules appeared to be clinically dead, Goldman said.

“If Aaron hadn’t come with that defibrillator, he would have had no shot," Goldman said. "Aaron appeared like an angel."

"There’s a very small window of opportunity to get someone back," said Miller. "We must have hit that window. Seventy-five percent of the people who go down immediately are in VTAC (ventricular tachycardia). You have three to four minutes to get a defibrillator. When this young man (Bifaro) came along and said, ‘Can you use this?’ I almost passed out," Miller said.

Nurses used the defibrillator to shock Yules’ heart.

And it worked.

Once rescue crews arrived, the nurses directed them in how to intubate the patient, said Rosemary Scheriff, an RN from Brooklyn’s Lutheran Medical Center who helped in the rescue.

How the defibrillator got to the convention is a tale unto itself. It had been donated by Rachel Moyer, a Port Jervis teacher and NYSUT member whose son Gregory died from a heart problem at a high school basketball game, with no defibrillator in sight. Lobbying by Moyer and NYSUT resulted in last year’s New York State law requiring AEDs in every school building.

Moyer was ecstatic to learn that her gift had helped save a life. "My prayers are with Herb Yules," Moyer said, "and I can’t believe you all brought the AED! I am once again so proud of my union."

Jump ahead one year, to the 2004 statewide convention, where Nancy Barth-Miller, Rosemary Scheriff, Hope Willocks and Anne Goldman were presented with their own AEDs by Rachel Moyer. “This was an emotional moment” said Goldman, “since it was the first time we actually met Rachel Moyer. It was her AED we used to resuscitate the fallen delegate at last year’s convention.”

Moyer showed a video of her son playing basketball moments before his tragic demise. His mother has used her loss to educate and prevent the unnecessary loss of other lives. She raises money in her son’s name to purchase and distribute defibrillators and felt gratified to know that her AED made a difference and saved one of the union’s own.

Each of the RNs will be donating these AEDs to a particular group to make a difference.