Dubuque Fire Department demonstrates cardiac arrest training that saved a captain's life
Tom Ludescher, a Dubuque Fire Captain, was helping with work on his father's farm when he suddenly felt light headed, and needed to sit down. When he then felt a tight pain in his chest, he knew he was in trouble.

October is Sudden Cardiac Arrest Awareness month. To help promote that, Dubuque’s Fire Department is sharing the story of how one of their captains was saved by the quick actions and training of his fellow firefighters.

Ludescher’s friend, a fellow firefighter, immediately called the emergency services in. The crew from Firehouse 4 sprung into action and hopped into their vehicles to meet them at one of the stations so they could start treatment. As he got into town, Ludescher says the pain got worse.

Alex Miller, a Dubuque firefighter and paramedic, and his team met them in a bank's parking lot instead, and got to work.

“Right as we closed the doors we noticed Tom was no longer breathing or talking to us anymore, so we started CPR right away," Miller said. "Which is not an easy thing to do on someone you know, someone who is close to you. It really starts to hit home.”

Miller says on the way to the hospital, Ludescher lost consciousness and stopped breathing twice, he was brought back by shocks from their defibrillator both times.

Ludescher says his fellow firefighter's training saved his life.

“Everything needed to be done quickly and there was not a lot of time to spare," Ludescher said. "So everything that they did from their training helped me survive the incident.”

Heart disease, which cardiac arrest can be a symptom of, is the leading cause of death in the US. It has less than a 10% survival rate. According to the CDC, heart disease has killed over 690,000 Americans in just the last year.

Ludescher says he never had any issues with his heart before that day. However thanks to that training he is still alive.

“The number one savior in any of these cardiac arrests is cpr," Alex Miller said. "So we started CPR, got our cardiac monitor on and then we shocked him one time, and then he woke up.”

Dubuque firefighters are re-trained every two months in how to treat cardiac arrests. They call it a wheel of survival.

Firefighters are trained to start continuous CPR immediately on a patient, while also maintaining the patient’s breathing. Through either a machine or manually. Then hook they hook the patient up to their mobile defibrillator machine, before transporting them to the hospital.

Miller says much of this training is thanks to the focus Dubuque and the Fire Department have had on improving their ability to save people dealing with cardiac arrests.

“Our numbers are increasing on patient outcomes," Miller said. "I don’t have the exact numbers right now but we are doing much better than where we were, let’s say, five years ago. That’s just from numerous trainings throughout the year, over and over and over.”

Miller recommends anyone interested should get their own training in CPR. He says both the Red Cross and many local colleges offer classes on CPR.