LENOIR CITY, TN (WVLT/CNN) – A regular visit to a Tennessee foot clinic turned into a life and death scenario when a patient had a massive heart attack in the middle of an appointment.
Podiatrist David Hawk normally takes care of everything from ingrown toenails to ankle and foot injuries, but that changed when the doctor says an elderly man came in for a simple toenail trimming.
The patient sat back in the chair then stopped breathing and lost his pulse. His eyes rolled into the back of his head as nurses watched.
"I was calling his name out – ‘come on, come on’ – and hoping he would come back to us,” Hawk said.
The patient was having a massive heart attack, and Hawk wasted no time in beginning CPR.
"We lost the pulse, so I proceeded to straddle him and basically just started the chest compressions,” Hawk said.
Hawk says he performed chest compressions for 15 minutes until paramedics arrived, and he kept going even when he felt the man’s ribs break.
"I did a little more rigorous chest compressions when we didn't get a pulse. I would just go a little harder. Then I felt some ribs break. We’re taught to keep going, so I did. Seconds later, we got a pulse,” Hawk said.
The patient flatlined a total of three times, and doctors say if it weren’t for Hawk forcefully pushing on his chest, the man would be dead.
"She said, 'I've never seen someone survive with this particular EKG,' and the cardiologist at the hospital told him the same thing… Apparently he had a blood clot and the chest compressions forced it through, and that's what apparently saved him,” Hawk said.
The man was revived at a nearby hospital. He last remembers talking with Hawk, and the doctor says he hopes to meet up with the man again, once he is released from the hospital.
"It just wasn't his time to go, that’s what it tells me. I was just in the right place at the right time and able to help him. I just feel so fortunate for him and his family,” Hawk said.
Hawk says he encourages others to learn CPR and not be afraid to perform it.
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