Sports Medicine News

Fairport Man Alive Thanks to Quick Action and Portable Defibrillator

Hobart and William Smith sports-medicine personnel and a donation by the Statesman Athletic Association help save a life

Hobart soccer goalie Carl Fried made a number of excellent stops last Saturday during the Statesmen's 2-1 win over Fredonia. But the best save of the day came when HWS athletic trainers revived a visiting team member's grandfather, who had a heart attack and collapsed in the lobby of Bristol Gymnasium.

Ralph Parker, 90, of Fairport, N.Y., was stricken following the Hobart-Fredonia game on Nov. 1. Student athletic trainer Andrew Martland '07 (from Portsmouth, R.I.) witnessed the collapse and alerted fellow student trainer Matt Yarger '04 (from Stanley, N.Y.) and Stephanie Sibeto, ATC (from Waterloo, N.Y.), who had been working the soccer game. Sibeto told Yarger to grab the Colleges' Automatic External Defibrillator (AED) and called for an ambulance. Yarger proceeded to the lobby with the unit.

By the time Sibeto joined Yarger at the scene, Parker had stopped breathing and had no pulse. Sibeto administered electric shock with the AED, and then she and Yarger began CPR.

Eventually, a pulse was detected and Parker began breathing on his own. He was taken by ambulance to Geneva General Hospital and transferred to a Rochester-area hospital after his condition stabilized. He was expected to be released late this week.

Recent studies have confirmed that rapid treatment with portable defibrillators can dramatically increase survival rates during cardiac arrest. The AED used in the Parker case was donated to the Colleges in April 2001 by the Statesmen Athletic Association. Hobart and William Smith were among the first colleges to have this device within a sports medicine department.

"None of us knows what awaits us each day at work, and certainly Matt and Stephanie didn't," said Mike Hanna, director of Hobart athletics. "But these two did a great job. They responded with skill and a sense of urgency that clearly saved the life of Ralph Parker."

This was also featured in the Finger Lakes Times story "To the Rescue … Training staff at Colleges saves soccer fan" from the Nov. 17, 2003, issue.