Crack Teamwork Saves Heart Attack Victim

SANTA ANA — A quick-thinking neighbor saved a 64-year-old man’s life Tuesday morning when a Santa Ana fire dispatcher gave him step-by-step cardiopulmonary resuscitation instructions over the telephone.

William Anderson, a retired Marine, suffered a heart attack and probably would have died if his neighbor John Bonkowski and fire dispatcher Maria Soto had not worked together to save his life, Santa Ana fire officials said.

“I was absolutely scared to death that I was going to lose him,” said Bonkowski, an Oshman’s Sporting Goods store manager who had no CPR experience. “All I kept thinking was ‘I got to save him. I got to save him.’ ”

Bonkowski was awakened by frantic calls for help by Anderson’s wife, Akio, who saw her husband grasp his chest and collapse on their living room sofa about 7:26 a.m. She dialed 911 but could not understand English well enough to perform CPR.

Bonkowski rushed into the couple’s home and found Anderson unconscious, not breathing, and without a discernible pulse. Dispatcher Soto said Bonkowski picked up the phone and asked her what to do.

“We didn’t have a lot of time,” Soto said. “I went full steam into the instructions, and he followed them.”

Within seconds after Bonkowski started CPR, paramedics arrived and took over. By the time Anderson arrived at Healthcare Medical Center in Tustin, he was breathing again. Anderson was in critical but stable condition at the medical center, officials said.

“The two of them only had three minutes of crucial time to save this man’s life,” said Eric Widell, paramedic coordinator for the Santa Ana Fire Department. “CPR needed to occur within that time or else it would have been over.”

Santa Ana fire dispatchers are trained on the Emergency Medical Dispatch System, which allows them to ask a series of questions to determine the condition of a patient and to provide life-saving instructions.

For Soto, who has been a police and fire dispatcher for seven years, this is her second “save.” Previously, she saved a man who had overdosed on heroin. She has also helped deliver two babies over the phone. One baby was born at a gas station, the other on a kitchen floor.

This call was particularly stressful, Soto said, because she didn’t know whether the man would survive.

“I wasn’t nervous until the call was over,” said Soto, 25. “Then my knees got all shaky . . . boy, I’m so happy he’s alive.”