Wingmen in right place, right time save lives

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group Public Affiars
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. (AFNS) --  Being at the right place at the right time may have saved the life of a surgical nurse assigned to the 81st Surgical Operations Squadron here Sept. 6.

Capt. Scott Thallemer was on temporary duty at the University of Maryland R. Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center when two fellow nurses saved him from certain death.

"I was out running with two (intensive care unit) nurses from Wilford Hall Medical Center at about 5 p.m. when, without warning, I went down face first into the street," the captain said.

He said the next thing he recalled was regaining consciousness as he was being placed into an ambulance.

Capt. Annemarie Nesbit and Capt. Katie Knott are the nurses credited with saving his life.

"Captain Knott and I were all out for a two-mile run," Captain Nesbit said. "This was not above and beyond any of our capabilities. We had all just met a few days before at the beginning of (Center for Sustainment of Trauma and Readiness Skills).

"As we were nearing the end of the run, we were going through a crowded crosswalk," Captain Nesbit said. "I was just ahead of them moving around some people when I heard Captain Knott scream, 'Annie!' It was a scream that instantly made you know something was wrong. I turned around a saw Captain Knott sitting on the ground holding Captain Thallemer.

Captain Thallemer had collapsed and struck his head on the ground.

"(Captain Knott) turned him over and held his head in the critical C-spine position that maintains an open airway," Captain Nesbit said. "I yelled at a bystander to help me lift him onto the sidewalk. At his side we assessed him, called his name to no response and, realizing he had no pulse, started CPR."

Captains Knott and Nesbit administered CPR for more than 10 minutes.

"We were yelling at the top of our lungs for an (automated external defibrillator)," Captain Nesbit said. "I felt a lady gawking at me, and I looked up directly at her and yelled, 'We are in the Inner Harbor! There are a million restaurants and police all around! Go get me an AED!'

She took off and retrieved the public-access AED.

"By this time, he was the worst shade of blue and gray I have seen and foaming at the mouth," Captain Nesbit said. "I placed the AED; it advised shock. It was at that moment I looked at Captain Knott and, for the first time in over 13 years as a nurse, I can say I was truly scared. I really thought Scott was going to die."

After the shock, and two more minutes of CPR, Captain Thallemer regained consciousness.

"We were not in a hospital, a clinic or even in the field with any equipment to help us," Captain Nesbit said. "We had our hands, our strength, our hearts and a Wingman who needed us. I cannot express how amazing it was to see Captain Thallemer vibrant and joking around literally moments after we had shocked him and broken a few ribs. Nothing will ever be the same."

Captain Thallemer said Captains Nesbit and Knott stayed with him in the emergency room and followed him to the cardiac catheterization lab.

"The (doctor) asked me if I minded if they watched the procedure through the window," Captain Thallemer said. "I told him, 'We're here for training so absolutely, yes!' They didn't leave my side until I went into the (intensive care unit following the procedure)."

He explained that in the catheterization lab, the doctor needed to locate the blockages and see what was going on with his heart.

The captain remained hospitalized for 14 days because of an infection that developed at the site where emergency medical technicians had inserted an IV.

After another stent was placed in an artery Oct. 4, Captain Thallemer returned to Keesler Air Force Base, Miss. Oct. 6.

Recalling the entire episode, Captain Thallemer said, "I can't get over how lucky I was. I'm glad there were two nurses there who had just completed ICU training. They started CPR probably within 10 seconds (of the event). Having to come to my aid in the middle of the street without any medical equipment was remarkable. The doc said before doing the procedure they saved my life."

Ironically, Captain Thallemer was credited with lifesaving actions while attending Squadron Officers School at Maxwell Air Force Base, Ala., Feb. 24 to April 15.

"We were a couple of weeks into the course when a classmate called to say another classmate had come out of the gym feeling kind of dizzy," he said. "I stopped by and did an assessment. I found her neurological signs all over the place and called 911. An ambulance responded and took her to the hospital. The captain, a 27-year-old missile officer from F.E. Warren AFB, Wyo., was diagnosed with arterovenous malformation causing bleeding into her cerebellum.

"To have both these events occur in a relatively short time span is pretty remarkable," Captain Thallmer said. "In either case, if I hadn't been there for her or if those two nurses hadn't been there for me, neither one of us would have survived."