Bystander CPR saves 70-year-old man's life in Highland Park: 'I'm a lucky guy'
CHICAGO - Thursday kicked off not only the start of February, but also the start of American Heart Month.
In a FOX 32 special report, Sylvia Perez shares the heartfelt story of just how lucky one man is to be alive today.
The holidays are the time of year that’s usually known as the season for miracles. If you ask Steven Malach, it’s really Halloween.
"Halloween has always been near my birthday," Steven said. "It is a big deal to me and this year, turning 70, it was a little bit more of a big deal than normal."
Steven turned 70 on Oct. 27. The Detroit-area man celebrated by driving to Highland Park to be with his oldest son and his family for both his birthday and Halloween.
"I was feeling fine when I offered to stay back [from trick-or-treating]. It was no more than, if we all leave, who’s going to give out candy at the house," Steven wondered.
But Malach’s son Jeff and his family wouldn’t hear of it.
"I was carrying the baby. Having a good time. It was a normal, joyous, Halloween trick-or-treating night," Steven said.
And then suddenly it wasn’t.
"My son has told me this has been a life-changing event for him," Steven said. "I’m totally oblivious to what he’s speaking of because I don’t remember or experienced a thing until I woke up two days later in the hospital surrounded by my family."
"All of a sudden, a friend of mine started screaming ‘Jeff your dad. He’s down, he fell.’ I was at the next house. I ran as fast as I could and my wife and my mom were there pulling my dad off of a bush," Jeff Malach said.
"So I just started screaming 'somebody call 911'," Jeff said.
Jeff said that’s one thing he remembers from the CPR training he received when his son was born eight years ago.
"At that point there was a million people calling 911 because you can imagine there was hundreds of kids and families all around, a very busy neighborhood," Jeff said.
Jeff’s dad had collapsed onto a bush in front of a house near the intersection of Cherokee and Indian Tree. Once Jeff got his dad down on the sidewalk, he says the homeowner ran out and began doing CPR.
"From there, just a miracle happened, which is two nurses showed up. I have very vivid memories of them just taking their jackets off and going right on his chest," Jeff said.
Ashley Kelly and Claire Farren are both nurses at Highland Park Hospital. They live nearby and heard the calls for help from neighbors.
"Right as I was running up, I saw Ashley running forward saying ‘get Claire.’ I could tell by the look on her face something really serious was going on," Farren said.
"I jumped on the chest. Started doing compressions. Shortly after, Claire showed up and we just kind of tag-teamed compressions and trying to support the man’s airway until paramedics arrived," Kelly said.
Kelly says it was a traumatic scene and not just for the patient and his family.
"Our community experienced a Fourth of July parade a few years ago with a lot of sirens and activity. That was very scary and traumatic to children so a lot of kids were really scared [on Halloween]. It was triggering with all the alarms and sirens going off," Kelly said.
"At that point, our very good friend, Dr. David Davidson, a cardiologist, showed up. At this point, there was two nurses and David on top of my dad," Jeff said.
It turned out Jeff and Davidson are close friends, if not best friends.
"I jumped in line behind them. Started checking the pulse and helped out after that," Davidson said.
He did that while still dressed in his Mickey Mouse Halloween costume.
As the paramedics hooked the patient up to heart monitors, that’s when Davidson saw Steven was in VFib.
"VFib is hard. You’re trying to die at that point. It’s very hard to get them back to normal," Davidson said.
"Ventricular fibrillation (VFib) is where the bottom chamber of the heart stops beating and it just starts quivering and that’s the main pumping chamber. So if it’s not beating, you’re not getting blood anywhere in your body," he added.
Davidson said they had to shock Steven a total of five times while trying to stabilize him before paramedics could transport him to Highland Park Hospital.
That’s because he went into VFib twice, something Davidson says is not uncommon.
"The ambulance closed the doors and I immediately started calling the ER and my partners in the cath lab to make sure they were ready for him," he said.
Dr. Jonathan Rosenberg took that call and was ready and waiting for Steven when he arrived at the ER.
"At the time he was unresponsive. He had a pulse and we were concerned he had a heart attack that caused his cardiac arrest," Rosenberg said.
Rosenberg went on to do a coronary angiogram and found one of Steven's arteries was 95% blocked. That night, he put in a stent to open up the artery and a balloon pump to help Steven's heart recover from his cardiac arrest.
"And then he had a very remarkable recovery over the next few days," Rosenberg said.
Steven spent about six days in the ICU before driving five hours home to Michigan. He's continued to do well ever since. He even marked his recovery by taking a trip to the Rose Bowl with his sons and grandson.
"People ask me how my dad is doing and I say he’s 100% fine," Jeff said.
Both know how lucky they are because there happened to be a few bystanders nearby who knew CPR.
"I do not believe he would be alive today if this didn’t happen on Halloween and that’s because not enough people know how to give bystander CPR including myself," Jeff added.
They are also so thankful for all that they did to save his life.
"Thank God people knew what they were doing to break my ribs. To puncture my lung to get to my heart," Steven said. "Thank you. I’m a lucky guy."
If you are interested in learning CPR this Heart Month, Endeavor Health is holding a free bystander CPR training event this Saturday in Highland Park.