A terrifying experience turns positive because of proper CPR training!

Collaboration is intended to increase identification of public access defibrillator locations and response readiness through Dynamic AED Registry.

A remarkable story!

An eighth-grader collapses during track practice.  

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A teen who has often found himself on the wrong side of the law is now being hailed as a hero after he helped saved the life of a police officer who was booking him at the jail.

Jamal Rutledge, 17, was handcuffed and sitting in the Fort Lauderdale police booking facility on Sept. 10, a few feet away from a desk where Officer Franklin Foulks was doing paperwork.

Suddenly, Foulks, 49, leaned backward from the desk, toppled off his chair and collapsed to the floor, according to Detective DeAnna Greenlaw.

Left to right: Officer Raymond Ketchmark, Officer Franklin Foulks, Jamal Rutledge, Officer Robert Norvis, Sergeant Todd Bunin (Fort Lauderdale Police Department)

Seeing Foulks in distress, Rutledge got up and began kicking the security fence and yelling to alert other officers in the area. The events were captured on surveillance video.

Within minutes three other officers arrived to find Foulks semiconscious and clutching his chest.

Sgt. Todd Bunin called Fire Rescue and then began to remove Foulks' police gear and cut off his shirt, Greenlaw said.

Officers Robert Norvis and Raymond Ketchmark overheard Bunin's radio transmission and arrived to assist.

Norvis began performing CPR on Foulks while Ketchmark grabbed a nearby defibrillator to begin stimulating Foulks' heart.

Ketchmark also made direct contact with Fire Rescue crews to provide updates on what was going on. After Fire Rescue arrived, Foulks was taken to Broward Health Medical Center.

Rutledge was being booked for violation of probation on charges including burglary and violation of juvenile imposed conditions, Greenlaw said.

He has been arrested "multiple times" since that September arrest, Greenlaw said. Because he's a juvenile, the details of the allegations were unclear on Tuesday.

Broward Health medical staff noted that Rutledge's action and the quick response of officers were critical to Foulks' survival.

Foulks is currently on light duty, and is expected to return to full duty at the end of this month, Greenlaw said.

Rutledge, a Fort Lauderdale resident, along with three police officers who teamed up to save Foulks' life, will be honored Jan. 21 at a city commission meeting.

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Within the next five years, the chance of survival from cardiac arrest could rise from an 8 percent survival rate to 80 percent due to drones. Graduate student Alec Momont of Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands designed an unmanned, autonomously navigating hexacopter that can deliver a defibrillator to a scene in less than half the time it takes an ambulance to arrive.

The drone would track the patients location from their mobile phone signal and use GPS to get to the location. Because most deaths from cardiac arrest occur within the first four to six minutes due to brain death, the time it takes to arrive on scene is crucial. These ambulance drones can get to a patient within an almost five-square-mile zone within one minute. Essentially a “medical toolbox”, the drone is equipped with medical equipment that anyone can use. Via a live stream webcam and audio connection, the drone connects to an emergency operator who can see what is going on at the scene and provide the person there with instructions on how to apply the defibrillator.

For more information on the future of this project, click here.

What's it like to survive a sudden cardiac arrest?

Channel your artistic side and create a design so that AEDs are more noticeable in the community!