Student EMT saves woman's life at CoHo

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by Elizabeth Egle

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At around 10:30 p.m., when the reception was winding down and the staff was cleaning up, one of the guests went into cardiac arrest. Young immediately administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation to the victim until the ambulance arrived. According to Rick Gaido, Cohen House manager, the victim probably would have died if Young had not been there and acted so quickly.

"I came out of the kitchen to find the woman face down on the floor, and no one was moving because they were shocked that this would happen at such a happy occasion," Young said. The woman had no pulse and was not breathing.

Young rolled the woman over to find that her face was gray and proceeded to administer CPR. The victim's cardiologist and another doctor were present to help Young with the CPR. Young said she felt calm and kept reviewing in her mind what she was supposed to do in such an emergency.

The Houston Police Department arrived within minutes, which Young said "felt like forever," and took over the situation. Young continued to help by clearing out the bystanders so the EMS could get to work.

The victim's condition stabilized, and by the time she got to the emergency room of Hermann Hospital she was completely alert.

The main reason Young was able to assist the woman was because of her involvement in the newly-formed Rice Emergency Medical Service team. The program, initiated in 1992 by Mark Enscott, Jones '96, has as its main goal to provide immediate medical care for any emergencies that may occur on campus.

Young took an Emergency Medical Technician training course last spring and is now involved in the Rice EMS. She was not on duty for the Rice EMS that evening but due to her training was able to remain calm because she "had gone over this in class."

According to Enscott, the Rice EMS was formed when he "researched into campus files and realized it was taking the Houston Fire Department 10 minutes to get to campus." This would create a potentially fatal situation for victims like the woman who went into cardiac arrest at the Cohen House. Without immediate assistance, brain cells start dying within four to six minutes, and if the heart is not started back up again, every minute after this, the patient's chances of survival are reduced drastically.

The Rice EMS has taken six years to develop, and it officially started on Oct. 4, 1995. It consists of about 20 trained EMTs, two pagers, a car donated by the Campus Police and medical equipment purchased with the help of the residential colleges. Over the years, Vice President for Student Affairs Zenaido Camacho has worked with Enscott to create a budget and find funding.

"The Rice EMS has been a valuable addition to the services we can provide the Rice community," Camacho said.

According to Enscott, "CPR does not save lives, it buys time." Even so, he said Young was the first link in the chain of survival.

"Right after it I didn't feel anything, but it has begun to sink in that I do make a difference," Young said.

She is now a Rice hero, and Camacho extended his congratulations to her. Young will receive a CPR Save Award, and Noah Reiter, a Jones sophomore and Rice EMS captain, will also receive this award for responding to the call and coming to the scene. Enscott and Gaido both said they were very proud of the results of that evening.

This item appeared in the News section of the October 18, 1996 issue.

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