Citizens to be recognized for live-saving measures during Danville man’s cardiac arrest

SAN RAMON – At their Regular Board Meeting on October 24th, the Board of Directors for the San Ramon Valley Fire Protection District will publicly recognize two local Citizen-Heroes for their quick actions that contributed to saving the life of Danville resident Hamed Farhadi, at the Club Sport Fitness Center in San Ramon on July 11, 2018.

At this monthly public meeting, the Board of Directors will recognize Club Sport employees Kevin Smith and Jessica Terrill for having come to the aid of Mr. Farhadi. While exercising at Club Sport, Mr. Farhadi experienced a cardiac arrest, rendering him pulseless and nonbreathing. Their decision to act, and to act quickly, bridged the gap between the time of cardiac arrest and the arrival of Fire District First Responders.

Fire Chief Paige Meyer will present Life Saving Awards to these two Citizen-Heroes, as well as to Fire District first responders Captain John Archuleta, Captain Erik Falkenstrom, Engineer Kevin Rawitzer, Engineer Joseph Varin, Firefighter Jason Alaga, Firefighter Joseph Corbett, Dispatch Supervisor Trisha Klink, and Dispatcher Stephen Rodwell.

Jessica Terrill had been the first to act that Wednesday evening, after having witnessed Mr. Farhadi collapse while running on a treadmill machine. She alerted other staff members, with Kevin Smith arriving within seconds. An initial assessment found that Mr. Farhadi did not have a pulse and was not breathing.

Kevin Smith immediately began Cardio Pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) efforts, while Jessica Terrill accessed emergency responders via the 911 system. Neither of these Club Sport employees possessed any formal emergency medical training, but they both remained calm and acted decisively in an almost choreographed effort to save Mr. Farhadi’s life.

Kevin and Jessica did not know they were in a jurisdiction where the Fire District provides all risk emergency responses to fires, medical emergencies, hazardous materials incidents, technical rescues, mass casualty events and more. They didn’t know that the District’s state of the art Communications Center would receive their 911 call directly, and not experience the all too common delay of having these potentially lifesaving calls transferred between multiple agencies.

They didn’t know that the Dispatchers they were talking with were highly trained and certified in Emergency Medical Dispatch (EMD), and that while Supervising Dispatcher Trisha Klink supported them utilizing Emergency Medical Dispatch protocols, her partner, Dispatcher Stephen Rodwell was dispatching the nearest District Fire Engine and Ambulance in an elapsed time of 45 seconds.

What they did know, was that Mr. Farhadi was lying on the floor before them, pulseless and not breathing and that they needed help. They hoped their efforts would temporarily support Mr. Farhadi, but he needed the most advanced emergency medical response available, and he needed it to arrive quickly.

Within three minutes of being dispatched, San Ramon Valley Fire District’s Engine 34 and Rescue-Medic 34 arrived on scene. Upon arrival at Club Sport, the six Firefighters, all of whom are state licensed Paramedics, quickly made their way to the second floor of the facility, where Kevin Smith had continued to deliver uninterrupted CPR to Mr. Farhadi.

As they approached, they observed that these Citizen-Heroes had not only accessed the 911 System and were providing high-quality CPR, but they had retrieved an Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) that Club Sport maintains onsite and had attached the device to Mr. Farhadi’s lifeless body.

As the six Firefighter Paramedics drew closer to their patient, they heard the distinctive synthetic voice of the AED unit loudly announcing, “Shock Advised, Shock Advised.” Without missing a beat, the Citizen-Heroes depressed the device’s “Shock Button,” delivering a life- saving electrical pulse to Mr. Farhadi’s body.

The Firefighter Paramedics assumed patient care responsibility for Mr. Farhadi, utilizing their Advanced Life Support (ALS) skills and equipment. This included the application of a mechanical CPR devise that delivers uninterrupted cardiac compressions in uniform rhythm and depth. In 2016 the Fire District had recognized the great value these assets would have in saving lives in the community and executed a deployment plan to have them placed on all District Fire Engines and Ambulances.

San Ramon Valley Fire Rescue-Medic 34 transported Mr. Farhadi from the scene and delivered him to the Emergency Room at San Ramon Regional Medical Center in an elapsed time of 16 minutes and 42 seconds, from the time of their arrival on-scene. Within days of this event, Mr. Farhadi was released from the hospital minus any deficit. He returned home to his wife of 28 years, Lamia Farhadi, and the couple’s three children. Mr. Farhadi has since returned to work in the banking industry here in Bishop Ranch and is a strong advocate for having everyone attend a CPR/AED course.