On Thursday evening June 1, 2023, EMS personnel of the Mechanicsburg Fire Department were honored in a public ceremony for their heroic role in the successful resuscitation of community resident John Donnersbach. Donnersbach was on hand to present each individual EMS provider with an engraved plaque award that commemorated their team actions. These actions ultimately resulted in a second chance at life for Donnersbach. Donnersbach had suffered a full out of hospital cardiac arrest on the evening of March 6, 2023. Mechanicsburg Fire Chief Matt Bebout spoke before the presentation of awards. “Through the outstanding efforts of the family, dispatchers, EMS crews, deputy sheriff, nurses and doctors, Donnersbach made a full recovery”. Asst. Fire Chief/EMS Coordinator Steve Castle also stated that, “the very fact that this incident occurred in a rural community with a small rural EMS agency responding, makes this story very unique and newsworthy.”
The day of Monday March 6, 2023, was a typical beautiful pre-spring day for John and Ruth Donnersbach. John was occupying his leisure time with his model train set and his wife, Ruth had decided that she and her daughter, Jennifer Faugh, would take an afternoon walk.
Ruth and Jennifer returned from their afternoon walk and entered the house and noticed that John was sitting at the dining room table unresponsive. Ruth, who is a retired PCA, further saw that John was not breathing and had no pulse. Ruth immediately lowered John to the floor and initiated CPR and instructed Jennifer to dial 911. Champaign County 911 dispatchers answered the call and very promptly dispatched Mechanicsburg Fire Department EMS crew to the Donnersbach residence for a 61-year-old male in full cardiac arrest with CPR in progress.
Upon hearing the initial radio dispatch, off duty Mechanicsburg Paramedic, Drew Ream, who lives in the nearby vicinity, responded from his home in his personal vehicle. Paramedic Ream, being the first on scene EMS provider, arrived at the residents and relieved Ruth of her resuscitation efforts. Within 6 minutes after dispatch the advanced life support paramedic crew from the Mechanicsburg Fire Dept. arrived on scene. From that point, the following ongoing resuscitation efforts were a collectively applied, highly coordinated, and precise execution of psycho motor skills and cognitive knowledge of prehospital resuscitation of cardiac arrest.
The Mechanicsburg EMS crew worked diligently to re-establish John’s heartbeat using a combination of medication, and electric therapy along with effective delivery of each breath. The efforts produced very positive results, and they were able to regain a pulse (i.e., restart the heart) for John while on scene. He was subsequently transported to Mercy Hospital in Urbana Ohio for further stabilization and finally relocated to Springfield Regional Medical Center where he was admitted and received definitive care. John was discharged after a 7 day stay. He now has an implantable defibrillator that monitors his heart rhythm 24 hours a day and is designed to administer a lifesaving electric shock in the event that his heart would suffer any further life-threatening arrhythmias.
EMS Coordinator Steve Castle stated that statistically, out of hospital cardiac arrest such as what John suffered, have poor outcomes. Fortunately for John, on the day of March 6, 2023, everything necessary for a favorable outcome was in place, i.e., immediate on scene high quality CPR, highly trained ALS (advanced life support) EMS providers along with BLS (Basic Life Support) EMS providers who were available to deliver the necessary care. The availability of Local Emergency Medical Services is an absolutely vital part of a community public safety program. Public support is strongly encouraged and is worthy of the utmost priority.
