Paul Blakesley (right) and Bill Crouch stand in the CLC Ambulance Service headquarters in Damariscotta after a presentation on Monday, Aug. 14. Blakesley was honored with a lifesaving award for successfully performing CPR on Crouch after the latter collapsed at Duck Puddle Campground in Nobleboro on June 13. “After that, he’s my brother,” Crouch said. (Maia Zewert photo)
A Nobleboro man provided the crucial first link during an emergency call in June, successfully performing CPR on a 64-year-old man at Duck Puddle Campground.
The efforts of Paul Blakesley, as well as Lincoln County Communication Center dispatcher, a Nobleboro Fire Department captain, and members of the Central Lincoln County Ambulance Service team who responded to the call, were honored during presentations on Monday, Aug. 14.
At approximately 6:35 a.m. on June 13, Blakesley, a co-owner of the campground, received a call that Bill Crouch, his friend and a seasonal resident, had collapsed in a camper on the property.
Blakesley jumped in his truck to head over and, after confirming someone had called 911 and first responders were en route, called his friend Carl Anderson, a lieutenant in Rockland Fire and EMS. Anderson, another frequent guest at the campground, was not on site that morning and told Blakesley to keep him updated on the situation as he made his way to Nobleboro.
Meanwhile, Mike Johnson, an emergency telecommunicator at Lincoln County Communications Center, dispatched CLC Ambulance Service and the Nobleboro Fire Department for the situation at 6:39 a.m.
Blakesley arrived at the camper to find Crouch unresponsive on the ground and Crouch’s wife was on the phone with Johnson, who was trying to keep her calm.
“It was hectic, just with a lot of feelings and emotions going on in the background,” Johnson said.
As Johnson talked with Crouch’s wife, Blakesley called Anderson, who told him to check for a pulse. When Blakesley was unable to locate a pulse, Anderson directed him to start chest compressions. Johnson relayed CPR instructions over the phone.
“It was a pretty tense moment,” Blakesley said. “On the fourth compression, I felt his sternum crack, and I said ‘I think I broke his … ribs’ and Carl was like ‘That’s good, keep going!”
A few compressions later, Crouch took a labored breath.
Having received directions through the campground from one of Johnson’s coworkers at the communications center, CLC Ambulance units arrived on scene where Blakesley was still performing chest compressions. They defibrillated Crouch at 6:50 a.m., at which point a sustained heart rhythm restarted.
Anderson heard the entire ordeal on the phone, having remained on the line with Blakesley while driving to the scene.
“I heard when they hooked him up to the (defibrillator) and he came back … it was a success all around,” Anderson said. “I was happy to be the guy on the other end of the line.”
As for Johnson, this was one of the few times in which he learned the outcome of an emergency call.
“We almost never get to hear what the end result is,” Johnson said. “This was a win.”
CLC Ambulance transported Crouch to LincolnHealth’s Miles Campus in Damariscotta before bringing him to Maine Medical Center in Portland. It was during the eight-day stay in Portland that Crouch woke up.
“I don’t remember anything,” Crouch said. “I was standing to get my coffee, and that’s all I remember.”
Crouch broke his toe and injured his shoulder in the collapse, he said. He also joked his sternum is “still a little sore” from Blakesley’s compressions.
Although Blakesley became certified in CPR at age 18 when he was a lifeguard, this was the first time he had to use the skills in an emergency.
“It was 12 minutes, but it felt like an eternity,” Blakesley said.
Every minute counts in an emergency, especially in rural areas, CLC Ambulance Service Chief Nick Bryant said.
“We looked it up, and it’s 7.8 miles to the campground, so that’s about an eight-minute response for us, plus the delay … of someone calling in, us getting dispatched, all of that takes time,” Bryant said. “The chances that we would have been able to get there, stabilize him, get him to Miles, then bring him down to Maine Med … none of that matters without Paul.”
That fact that Blakesley is friends with Crouch made the situation more incredible, Bryant said.
“I still remember the first time I did (CPR),” Bryant said. “I can’t imagine doing it to someone I know. And to be able to stay calm and in that mindset for 10ish minutes, it’s admirable.”
During a ceremony at the CLC Ambulance station on Monday, Aug. 14, Bryant presented Blakesley with a plaque commemorating his actions, as well as an EMS lifesaving pin. The members of the ambulance crew who responded to the call – advanced EMTs Jerrad Dinsmore, Curtis Bramhall, and Kaitlyn Munsey and paramedics Matthew Wade, Kristen Roberts, and Ryann Trask – also received a pin at the ceremony, as did Nobleboro Fire Department Capt. Aaron Bradbury.
Lincoln County Communications Center Director Tara Doe presented Johnson with a Life Saver Award for his successful use of emergency medical dispatch protocols. Both Johnson and Doe credited the entirety of the communications center staff for their work on dispatching the call.
“We work as a team,” Doe said. “This is huge for the agency.”
Bryant hopes Blakesley’s action and Crouch’s outcome will encourage others to get trained and certified in CPR.
“If even 10 people take a course, that’s a win,” Bryant said. “The more people who know how to do this, the better, in my book.”
In his brief remarks in front of the crowd at the CLC Ambulance station, Crouch thanked the responders present and Blakesley, who he called his “brother.” While the two have been friends for close to a decade, they do not officially share a familiar relation.
“(But) after this, he’s my brother,” Crouch said.
