SALT LAKE CITY — A man who went into cardiac arrest earlier this month at Salt Lake City International Airport had a team of emergency medical professionals spring into action to save his life, though all were strangers to each other.
Peter Wall was at the airport, getting set to head home to Florida after a 10-day trip to Park City, when he suddenly slumped over in his wheelchair, unconscious, jaw clenched, prompting his family to search desperately for a doctor in the airport.
Luckily, Dr. Anant Shukla was in the Delta lounge as the emergency medicine resident at Dartmouth University was waiting because his flight had been delayed by several hours.
Shukla immediately began emergency procedures to clear Wall's airway and start his heart. He was soon joined by Dr. Collin Swenson, a pulmonary and critical care medicine specialist at Emory University, who used a defibrillator and chest compressions to keep Wall's heart beating before paramedics arrived.
Josh Lane, a former flight nurse, joined in saving Wall's life.
"It really was kind of the best people to have in this type of circumstance: a critical care physician, a flight nurse, an emergency medicine physician, because a lot of us do this on a regular basis and we were able to kind of begin the resuscitation," said Dr. Shukla.
The group gave Wall several shocks to keep his heart going and said they lost his pulse several times so kept working on him for several minutes.
"I moved from the airway to the chest and then was giving some chest compressions until the paramedics kind of took over and put on a device that provides mechanical compressions called the Lucas device," said Dr. Swenson.
Lane said he wasn't supposed to be in the Delta lounge as he and a friend decided to take a later flight than originally planned; that's when a member of the Wall family ran in frantically asking for help.
Lane later helped Shukla with chest compressions to keep Wall alive.
"We'd do chest compressions for, you know, about two minutes ... but at one point we'd stop, we'd check a pulse and you'd have a pulse and then, within, I don't know, 30 seconds we would lose it again and, it just started right back up," he said.
"I remember people kept saying, do we have Epinephrine, do we have these medicines that we would normally keep and that we have in a hospital."
They said they worked like a pit crew to keep Wall alive and received news from his family that he's doing well despite some broken ribs from their rescue efforts.
How the group learned of Wall's current status is a story in and of itself. Shukla left his iPad in the Delta lounge and had VIP treatment to get it back.
"I'm just a resident but they sent one of their Porsches to go pick up my iPad ... and with it they brought back Mr Wall's business card."
The doctor was able to email Wall's family and learned he had made a complete recovery.
"I did not have a business card and it sort of would be a breach of protocol to call the hospital and inquire about his well-being," said Swenson, "I was absolutely floored that he had not only survived but he had left the hospital."
Andrew Wall says he knew Peter was going to be fine on the way to the hospital.
"We were going towards the ambulance and he opened his eyes and was responding up to us with blinks, and then we were getting in in the car and he's complaining about the bumpy roads," he said. "And that's, you know, that's when I knew, I think things were kind of okay."
Wall said, "This is a miracle in my, in my eyes, you know, for you guys being able there to having the resources, the limited resources that you guys had.
"I know that you guys made the difference and I really appreciate it. Thank you so much."
