I asked Cynthia, who was with Katie to write up an account of what actually occurred. This is it:
October 1, 2012
Katie Andreassen and I were leaving work from the Loma Linda Dental School a few minutes after 4:00 pm. We both work on the 5th floor and met in the hallway outside the elevator. She took the stairs down and I took the elevator but we reached the 2nd floor at the same time and walked out of the building together. As we were going down the back stairs from the loading dock Katie noticed that the shuttle was at the shuttle stop in the dental school parking lot. She ran a few steps, maybe 5-7, when she noticed that a second shuttle was coming in the driveway to the parking lot. She stopped running and said there was no need to because she saw the second shuttle. Just as soon as she said that, she immediately fell backward onto the asphalt parking lot. I am assuming that because of the fall and hitting her head so hard, she went into a seizure that lasted, what seemed like a long time, but was probably a minute or so. I immediately called 911 from my cell phone and stayed on the phone with them until the paramedics arrived. At this time one of the graduate dental students, Dr. Sharma (sp?), approached, helped turn Katie on her side, and assessed her condition. She was still breathing although it was labored. Another woman also came up to see what was happening. Shortly thereafter, between her and Dr. Sharma they determined that she had no pulse and her breathing had stopped. She had begun to turn blue. They immediately turned Katie on her back and began CPR with Dr. Sharma doing the compressions and the other woman doing the breaths. This continued until the paramedics arrived. While the paramedics were getting out their equipment and setting up, the CPR continued. The paramedics assessed Katie and immediately intubated her and then took over the CPR. They put her on a back board onto the gurney and then took her to the ER at LLUMC. Jennifer Osborne, Margie Arnett and I all walked over to the ER and the reception people placed us in the “family” room where we attempted to contact her family and her boyfriend Richard Layon. I stayed at the hospital until approximately 8 pm and Richard, some of his family and many friends had arrived.
Cynthia Cassem
I know you already have, but please thank these people from the bottom of my heart!! I know Katie wouldn't be here if it hadn't been for them! I am so very thrilled with Katie's improvements! I wish badly that I could be there to help keep watch and ease some of the tiredness of all the family and friends there. Love to you all!
ReplyDeleteGina Beldin
What a miracle a doctor was right there and the LLUMC was so close! Thanks for telling the story Cynthia and to u Adam for posting it. Love you all, Debbie ( Katie's aunt, Larry's sister )
ReplyDeleteThank the Lord you were there with her.
ReplyDeleteThank you Adam and Cynthia for sharing the whole story with us. It's amazing to see how God was there the whole time.
ReplyDeleteI know who the woman who gave CPR to Katie is. She works with me in the School of Medicine, and her name is Dr. Tamara Shankel. She's the Senior Associate Dean for Clinical Education, and a pediatrician who works in the transplant clinic. On October 1, a medical student came running into our office and said a young woman had collapsed in the parking lot outside between the School of Dentistry and Coleman Pavilion, and would she please come and help, as they didn't know what to do for her and she wasn't breathing. Dr. Shankel raced out the door to the rescue. When she came back, she said that the young woman had seized in the parking lot, and when she arrived had no pulse and was turning "dusky" blue, and that she and another physician had performed CPR on her (she did the breathing while he did the chest compressions) until the paramedics arrived. She knew that she and the other physician had probably saved the girl's life. She will be thrilled to know that Katie is alive and recovering!
ReplyDeleteI don't know Katie. I was told about this blog by my husband, Peter Cress, who is a friend of DJ Eick, who has been posting on Facebook about Katie's progress. On a whim, Peter clicked on her link to this blog and when he read this story, he remembered my having told him about a person Dr. Shankel had helped in the parking lot that same day. He sent me the link, and when I read your account, I knew it was the same person. It really is a small world!