CHIPPEWA FALLS -- Claude Carpenter thought the spicy jambalaya he had the night before was causing the knot in the middle of his chest.
He had started his shift at 11 a.m. at TTM Technologies in Chippewa Falls. He had worked at the printed circuit board manufacturer for three years.
The 49-year-old Scoutmaster from Chippewa Falls enjoys canoeing and hiking, and often walks to work. But now, at about 12:30 p.m., he was leaning against some lockers in the hallway.
He was hoping what he thought was heartburn causing the knot in his chest would go away, which it did. He started to walk again, when he collapsed of a heart attack. To save his life, Carpenter would have to rely on a man he had met just a week earlier and two co-workers he didn't know.
Rick Steinmetz, of Chippewa Falls, has worked for TTM for 25 years and was in the "wet area," plating copper on the surface of a printed circuit board.
A female co-worker had noticed something going on in the hallway, and motioned to Steinmetz to go there. Steinmetz was the first to help Carpenter,
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So he asked a technician to call TTM's front desk to notify the plant's First Responder team. The person at the front desk sent text messages to the team, and at the same time called the cell phone of Tim Black, of Rock Falls. He was about 200 feet away from Carpenter when he got the call.
Besides training with TTM's First Responder team, Black had gone through training with the Rock Creek Fire Department and Dunn County.
But training doesn't mean you still aren't shocked to see a co-worker you had just met a week before now having a heart attack.
Black could see Carpenter's breathing was stopping and the man was losing color. "I told Rick at the time we needed to get him onto his back," Black said, which they did. Another employee stopped by, and Black asked him to call 911.
Fifteen seconds later, another TTM First Responder, Howard Ressler, of Chippewa Falls, arrived to help. Black told Ressler, who has worked for the company for 24 years, to get the AED the company has near the front desk. AED stands for Automated External Defibrillator, a portable device that allows the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm.
Ressler took off running the 250 feet to get the AED, one he had trained to use. "While he was getting that, I monitored Carpenter for breathing and a pulse," Black said. But Carpenter had no pulse.
Ressler arrived back at the scene with the AED. Together with Black, they placed the pads of the machine on Carpenter's chest.
"The unit told us to shock," Black said about the AED, which diagnoses what is happening and gives recorded instructions. "After the shock, we started CPR."
After another minute or so, the AED said to stop giving CPR. Carpenter's color started to come back. But Carpenter then stopped breathing. Once again, his pulse stopped. "His face and neck were turning purple," Steinmetz said. Black resumed CPR on Carpenter. Then the AED chimed in. "It told us to shock again," Steinmetz said.
The men resumed giving Carpenter CPR, and the Chippewa Falls Fire Department's EMS arrived at the plant. At the same time, Black said, Carpenter started breathing.
The only time Carpenter talked was when he was loaded into the ambulance. He used a profanity to describe how he felt. Just hearing him speak made Steinmetz, Black and Ressler feel better.
Carpenter remembers nothing about what happened. He knows he leaned against the lockers and recalls that knot in his chest.
"The next thing I know, I woke up at St. Joseph's Hospital," he said. Carpenter has a certificate for completing CPR training. But he never expected to rely on others to know how to do it. "Never in my wildest dreams did I figure I would be the one they would be using it on," he said.
Carpenter came out of the experience thinking all businesses should have an AED. "These things should be in every business place," he said of the units, which cost an average of $1,500.
Ressler said TTM is buying two more AEDs, so the machines can be spaced out throughout the Chippewa Falls plant. He is grateful his training took hold, and he was able to remain calm through the incident, which was caught on company surveillance tape.
Carpenter got to thank Steinmetz, Ressler and Black for the first time when a reporter interviewed him.
Carpenter said he still is in disbelief that he would have to have others save his life. "There was no way I would ever figure I would have a heart attack," he said, but it's a credit to Steinmetz, Ressler and Black that they saved another man's life.
"Thanks man. All of you, thanks," Carpenter said.
