A man says he’s alive today thanks to the quick actions of staff at a hardware store just north of Peterborough, Ont., last month.
This week an emotional John McKiernan returned to the Home Hardware store to thank his “guardian angels” who came to his aid nearly three weeks ago after he suffered a cardiac arrest outside the Chemong Road business. His memories of that day are cloudy and limited.
“I got the company truck. I had a list of stuff to do,” he recalled.
He says the last moment he recalls is loading his supplies outside the store.
“My mind — just everything was a blank,” he said. “I don’t remember falling. There’s no pain involved. I woke up about three days later in Peterborough ICU.”
McKiernan says he has worn a pacemaker for nearly three decades and the worst seemed imminent.
“Death, simple as that,” he said.
But staff inside the store noticed McKiernan’s collapse. Human resources manager Sharon Coupples and paint consultant Angella Demell were quick to jump to action.
“One of my co-workers, Brent, he turned around and yelled, ‘Ange, CPR,” Demell said. “And all I said was, ‘Where?'”
Coupples says she turned and grabbed a nearby automated external defibrillator.
“(I) ran through the store as fast as I possibly could and went outside and saw John on the ground,” she said.
The staff performed CPR on McKiernan and used the defibrillator to resuscitate his heart.
“One of the biggest things that went through my head was, ‘He’s got a pacemaker. It’s telling me to shock him. Can we shock him?'” Demmell said. “And nobody was answering me. Everything was in slow motion.”
Paramedics arrived and transported McKiernan to the Peterborough Regional Health Centre with vital signs absent.
“Waking up three days later, my family by my side — very, very emotional,” he told Global News on Monday.
McKiernan celebrated his 64th birthday in hospital with a new pacemaker. He says none of it would have been possible without his “guardian angels.”
At the store Monday, he was emotional as he thanked staff for saving his life.
“I buy a lot of lottery tickets and that, never win the lottery,” he said. “But I won the lottery that day.”
— with files from Germain Ma/Global News Peterborough