{"id":9509,"date":"2015-01-14T18:08:00","date_gmt":"2015-01-14T23:08:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/?p=9509"},"modified":"2015-01-28T17:46:01","modified_gmt":"2015-01-28T22:46:01","slug":"ex-firefighter-credits-squash-players-with-saving-his-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/ex-firefighter-credits-squash-players-with-saving-his-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Ex-firefighter credits squash players with saving his life"},"content":{"rendered":"

By Jake Courtepatte<\/strong><\/p>\n

The phrase \u201ctiming is everything\u201d rings especially true when a life is on the line.<\/p>\n

In Aurora resident Brian Johnson\u2019s case, he credits the quick actions of an off-duty nurse, firefighter, and police officer with being alive today.
\nOn October 6 of last year, Johnson had just finished a game of squash at the Aurora Family Leisure Complex and was in the process of cooling down.
\nThat\u2019s when he fell down \u201cV.S.A.\u201d which, in medical terms, means \u201cvital signs absent.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI was dead on the floor,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI had no pulse, non-breathing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Happening on a Monday, it just so happened that it was a league night the night of the incident, and on hand were the three people who would save his life.<\/p>\n

Firefighter Brian Erskine, police officer Greg Payne, and pediatric nurse Branka Asadi immediately went to work over the new patient right there at the squash club.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey were working on me within thirty seconds of me dropping to the floor.\u201d<\/p>\n

Using the defibrillator at the complex, the trio were able to bring Johnson back with a few shocks.<\/p>\n

He was then taken to Southlake Regional Health Centre, where he received a quadruple bypass a few days later.<\/p>\n

Southlake\u2019s cardiac program is among the best in Canada, and Johnson knew that he was in good hands.<\/p>\n

Johnson also knew that it was the quick timing and availability of medical experts on hand that saved his life that day.<\/p>\n

Having retired almost two years ago, Johnson was actually a firefighter in Etobicoke for 31 years. <\/p>\n

He had run \u201cliterally thousands\u201d of medical calls over his career and says he never thought that he would be on the receiving end of a case.
\n\u201cI\u2019ve done all these calls over the years, but I\u2019ve never realized the pain these guys were in until I experienced it myself. I wouldn\u2019t wish it on anyone.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson spent nine days in the hospital before his release.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt was a pretty fortunate event,\u201d said Johnson. \u201cI\u2019ve seen a lot of stats\u2026I know that our success rate for something like that was about five percent.\u201d<\/p>\n

Despite the low success rate, Johnson said it has nothing to do with a lack of effort or training, but rather the time frame in which the patient is attended to.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf whoever is at the scene is able to start CPR, that\u2019s usually the defining difference.\u201d<\/p>\n

Johnson also wishes to credit the Town of Aurora for keeping a working defibrillator on the wall in the complex amidst the construction going on.
\nAgainst all odds, Johnson came out of the ordeal without any heart damage. He hopes to be able to play squash again in six to nine months.<\/p>\n

Johnson will be presenting the three individuals he credits with saving his life with an appreciative plaque at Town Council next Tuesday, January 20.
\n\u201cI couldn\u2019t have fallen into better hands,\u201d he said. \u201cThere\u2019s not much more you can say but thank you, so I just want to do something in recognition of what they did.\u201d<\/p>\n\"Facebook\"<\/a>\"twitter\"<\/a>\"mail\"<\/a>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The phrase \u201ctiming is everything\u201d rings especially true when a life is on the line.<\/p>\n

In Aurora resident Brian Johnson\u2019s case, he credits…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[26],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-9509","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archive"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p3D2k4-2tn","publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-05-09 21:45:42","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9509","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9509"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9509\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9509"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9509"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newspapers-online.com\/auroran\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9509"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}