Dr. Hal Skinner graduated from Heath High School and became a cardiologist, working at Baptist Health in Lexington. Last Monday, he was playing tennis at the Lexington Tennis Club when one of his opponents in a doubles match fell to the ground.
Skinner said the two teams had just switched sides when he saw out of the corner of his eye that Paul McElwain had fallen and didn't get up.
Skinner said he ran over and quickly assessed McElwain, who was bleeding and showing seizure-like activity.
"I found he had no pulse and I started CPR. We had seen that there was a defibrillator in the tennis club and I asked someone to run and get it. After I shocked him, his pulse came back," Skinner said.
But McElwain still wasn't responding well, and it eventually took three more shocks, a breathing tube and intravenous fluids before Skinner and local EMS got him stabilized enough to take to Baptist Health Lexington. Skinner had called ahead to get the heart catheterization lab ready, and they performed that procedure immediately.
McElwain now has a defibrillator implanted in his chest, and Skinner said the patient went home the following Thursday.
McElwain spoke to WKYT-TV, saying, "What's the chances that you are going to have that kind of event across the net from a cardiologist, in a facility with an automatic external defibrillator?"
Skinner said he probably started CPR about 30 seconds after McElwain collapsed, and the AED was used within 3-4 minutes.
Patients who have cardiac events can suffer permanent damage after just five minutes without blood flow to the brain, and Skinner indicated that if circumstances had been different, the outcome could have been much worse.
Skinner said, "He did so well because he had a minimal amount of time without blood flow to the brain. That's the key when you go into ventricular fibrillation - when the heart's basically beating so fast it doesn't pump any blood."
The cardiologist pointed out that being aware of AEDs in public buildings and having some understanding of how they work can be invaluable when an emergency occurs. Knowing CPR is also useful in case an AED isn't available.
Skinner says he hopes McElwain recovers quickly and can get back on the tennis court, "so I can beat him again."
On the Net:
WKYT Story with video
