Few people can say they’ve actually saved a life.

Even professional emergency responders who’ve made a career of offering assistance might find themselves at a loss to answer whether or not they’ve been “lifesavers” since they work as members of a team within a larger support system.

But a small group of able islanders clearly made a difference when they jumped into action after their friend collapsed in cardiac arrest at the Salt Spring Island Golf and Country Club.

Three locals — Jerry Davidson, David Feitelberg and Mike Wilson — didn’t expect a call for heroics when they headed out to play golf with their friend Bob McKenzie on Sept. 29. But when McKenzie suddenly collapsed on the third green, the three men summoned help, performed CPR (cardio-pulmonary resuscitation) and guided emergency responders to the scene.

“We simply reacted,” said Davidson.

Another man who rose to meet the challenge was nearby groundskeeper Kurtis Buyze, who ran back to the clubhouse to get a phone and returned with a B.C. Ambulance Service dispatcher on the line. The dispatcher offered invaluable assistance by guiding the group through their CPR procedure over the phone, Feitelberg said.

“The detailed expert advice gave us the assurance to continue what we were doing until the paramedics arrived.”

As luck would have it, Buyze had also just recertified his CPR skills a few weeks earlier at a course through his work at the golf course.

“I figured the biggest thing was getting the 911 call as soon as possible. Doing CPR is important too but if help isn’t going to come soon, that isn’t so good.”

And Buyze was amazed at the prompt response by local emergency crews.

“By the time I got back, I was only doing CPR for a minute or so before first responders and paramedics got there. I think we’re pretty lucky to live in a community like that.”

Following a shock from an automated external defibrillator (AED) administered by emergency personnel on the scene, McKenzie’s heart recovered a viable rhythm and he was transported to Lady Minto Hospital for further treatment and assessment.

“I don’t remember much of the incident, but I’m feeling pretty good now apart from sore ribs,” McKenzie said.

Thanks to a little help from his friends (and a large supporting cast of emergency and medical professionals) McKenzie is even thinking about getting back to the golf course to finish his round.

“I was truly blessed to be with my great friends who knew what to do — CPR — and they did it with the greenskeeper’s help,” said McKenzie.

He also offered gratitude for “the excellent care of the paramedics and first responders, the superb staff at Lady Minto, the helicopter crew, as well as the doctors at Royal Jubilee Hospital. It was all these teams that gave me back my life.”

McKenzie’s recovery is something of a minor miracle on Salt Spring since so few people survive cardiac arrest. Contrary to popular depictions in movies, patients rarely recover from arrest despite the best efforts of trained professionals with the most modern equipment.

According to the Resuscitation Outcomes Consortium — a group of Canadian and U.S. clinical centres that includes the B.C. Ambulance Service (BCAS) — there are 180,000 cases of treatable out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in North America annually. Of those patients who have cardiac arrests, typically 95 per cent die before reaching the hospital (amounting to 35,000 to 45,000 fatalities in Canada each year).

On Salt Spring, the reduced resources (compared to an urban centre) and extended travel distances of a rural community add additional challenges to the odds of surviving cardiac arrest.

Emergency services veteran Captain Dale Lundy of Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue can’t recall another incident where an islander made a full recovery from cardiac arrest in his 17 years of service.

“Obviously, we feel good when things work out well for the patient, but it also helps to validate all the training we do when something like this happens in the community,” said Lundy.

Some of the essential keys that helped McKenzie survive were that his friends recognized the emergency, called for help and delivered prompt CPR until he could receive advanced medical care, said local BCAS unit chief Nancy Purssell.

“In keeping with the ‘chain of life’ promoted by the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada (HSFC), once someone is in cardiac arrest, all the research indicates they need early access to emergency care, early CPR, early defibrillation and early access to advanced cardiac care,” Purssell said.

According to HSFC press material on its website (www.heartandstroke.bc.ca), for every minute that passes without assistance a person’s chance of survival drops by about 10 per cent.

“Studies show that few patients survive if the time from collapse to defibrillation is greater than 12 minutes. If CPR is performed from the time of collapse to the time the defibrillator arrives, survival may be possible for a longer time interval.”

HSFC also promotes the installation of defibrillators (with staff training) in public facilities where large numbers of high-risk adults might be located, such as airports and ferries.

“In a perfect world, if everybody knew how to do CPR and there were AEDs on every street corner, we would see a lot more people survive from cardiac arrest,” said Lady Minto Hospital chief of staff Dr. Shane Barclay.

Coincidentally, the Salt Spring Island Golf and Country Club recently received an easy-to-use defibrillator that would enable a bystander to assist any future patient who might have a cardiac arrest at the site. (See related story.)

While public-access defibrillators can be an important part of the “chain of survival,” HSFC places an even greater emphasis on community CPR training.

“Bystander CPR is the best treatment that a cardiac arrest patient can receive until a defibrillator and advanced medical care arrive,” cites HSFC research.

And Davidson found he was able to respond to the emergency even though he hadn’t taken a CPR course in several decades.

“You just do it.”

While Davidson, Feitelberg, Wilson and Buyze shy away from comments about heroics, they agreed to provide comments in this story only if it would help encourage more islanders to learn CPR.

“It’s something that everyone should take part in,” Davidson said.

And now the group of golfing friends and their wives are even looking to recertify their skills with a course themselves, he laughed.

SSIFR encourages islanders to investigate the numerous organizations offering CPR courses in the Vancouver Island region, including: HSFC, Canadian Red Cross, St. John’s Ambulance and their affiliates.

The writer is a firefighter paramedic with Salt Spring Island Fire Rescue.