By Tim Whtinell
The Burlington Post
TORONTO, Canada — Mike Wilson had a great night at the arena recently and it had nothing to do with any action on the ice.
The career firefighter and recreational hockey player with the Burlington Oldtimers club is the main reason why fellow oldtimers player Pete Heeney survived a medical emergency at Appleby Ice Centre in mid-November, and is still alive to enjoy during the Christmas season with his family of five.
A 10-year member of the Burlington Fire Department, Wilson, 42, had just walked into the Appleby arena around 9:20 p.m., in advance of his 10 p.m. game, when teammate Dave Landry, scurrying to make a 911 call, ran up to him and said a player had collapsed and was in need of help.
Armed with first aid training, Wilson rushed into one of the rinks and found the 52-year-old Heeney slumped behind one the team player benches; he was unconscious.
“There were a couple of people standing around but not attending to him,” said Wilson, noting he knows Heeney from playing against him several times a season.
“At that point I went right into work mode and had someone help me pull him up onto the (players) bench. I realized he had no pulse and went into CPR.”
Wilson said a woman who identified herself as a paramedic from Peel Region arrived with the arena’s portable external defibrillator. She hooked Heeney up to it in case his heart needed to be shocked back into proper rhythm.
“The defibrillator gave us a ‘no shock’ indication,” which Wilson said meant that either Heeney’s heart had stopped or he had a heartbeat and it was in proper sinus rhythm. Wilson believes the latter was the case. After about two minutes of intense chest compressions Heeney revived.
“He took a couple of breaths and slowly awoke.”
Heeney was talking to Wilson before an ambulance arrived.
“To actually have been talking to me before he went into the ambulance, that was the first time,” said Wilson of the dozens of times he’s been on the scene with an unconscious patient, for them to come to and be conversive before being taken to hospital.
The firefighter said his on-duty experience has been that most unconscious patients don’t revive on the scene and many don’t survive their medical ordeal.
Heeney said he didn’t feel well prior to his medical crisis.
“I told my (defence) partner I had to lie down, and that’s all I remember. When I woke up I was staring at some bright (arena ceiling) lights,” said Heeney.
He was taken to Joseph Brant Hospital. He was later diagnosed with aortic stenosis, a condition he said he was told normally afflicts 60-70 year olds. However, it may be a congenital heart condition in his case.
The 25-year educator, the last 10 as a math and physics teacher at Aldershot High School, has a faulty valve in his aorta.
When the heart’s aortic valve narrows it prevents the valve from opening fully, which obstructs blood flow from your heart into your aorta and to the rest of your body. When the aortic valve is obstructed, your heart needs to work harder to pump blood to your body. Eventually, the extra work weakens your heart and limits the amount of blood it can pump, leading to symptoms such as fatigue and dizziness.
Left untreated, aortic valve stenosis can lead to serious heart problems. Heeney was scheduled to have an operation at Toronto General Hospital on Dec. 24 to repair his aortic valve.
He says he hopes to be back at Aldershot H.S. in about three months and has been told he should be able to resume playing hockey next season.
“As far as my family is concerned, it is my Christmas present,” Heeney said of his survival.
The saviour and the survivor haven’t been able to get together in person since that fateful night although they have spoken on the phone a couple of times. “We’ll get together at some point and I’ll thank him,” said Heeney, who has a wife, Ann, and three children, Jane, 15, Jordan, 12, and Jack, 8.
At a Burlington Fire Department graduation ceremony held on Dec. 14, Wilson’s lifesaving efforts were recognized with a plaque presented to him by Fire Chief Shayne Mintz.
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