‘They saved my life:’ After cardiac arrest, heart patient returns to thank care team

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    SOUTH BURLINGTON, Vermont (WPTZ) — A Connecticut man who went into cardiac arrest during a ski trip to Vermont returned to the Green Mountain State this weekend to say thank you to the good Samaritans, ski patrollers, and medical professionals who were key to his successful recovery.

“This whole team left an impact on me and my family,” Steve Stahl, 50, told NBC5 News at a reunion held in the hangar home to the University of Vermont Health Network’s critical care helicopter.

Stahl’s life changed on Martin Luther King Day Jr. in January on the slopes of Stowe Mountain Resort, during his sixth ski run of the day.

“I realized something was wrong,” Stahl recalled. “I had this floating sensation and started getting lightheaded.”

Stahl told NBC5 News he had split up from his son and buddies to explore different trails. Sensing he was in some sort of trouble, Stahl said he knew he had to get to a place where someone could help him. He planted his skis upright in the snow and collapsed, he recalled.

“I was told that it’s called ‘the widowmaker,’ and I had two minutes to live from the time I fell down,” Stahl said.

Luckily, an off-duty emergency department nurse was skiing nearby with a friend who also had medical training. They spotted those skis next to Steve’s motionless body and leapt into action, performing CPR and summoning ski patrollers who raced to the scene with a defibrillator and other life-saving equipment.

Meanwhile, 40 miles north, the UVM Health Network’s critical care helicopter flight crew took off for the 20-minute trip to Mt. Mansfield. The American Heart Association calls this kind of all-in response the “chain of survival.”

“When it works, you have much higher rates of cardiac arrest survival,” senior flight paramedic Jeff Patterson said of the series of people involved in responding to a cardiac arrest. “Every time that you drop the ball in one area, every time something isn’t done well in one area, it reduces the likelihood of a successful outcome. In Steve’s [case], there wasn’t a ball dropped anywhere in his care and everything just went perfect.”

According to the UVM Health Network, there is a survival rate of less than 10% for cardiac arrest outside of the hospital setting.

The team on the HealthNet helicopter provided advanced resuscitation on the trip to Burlington, where UVM Medical Center physicians discovered plaque buildup in Steve’s heart led to a clot causing an almost complete blockage of a key artery. They put in a stent, and for a couple days, used a device that temporarily helped Steve’s heart to beat.

Stahl recalled waking up to see the faces of his wife, Alison, and son, Liam.

“Just never take life for granted,” Liam Stahl said, reflecting on his experience of going skiing with his dad. “Things can change in an instant, and you just never know.”

The family said they wanted to return to Vermont to check out the HealthNet chopper, which Steve doesn’t even remember riding in, and to express their profound gratitude to the many people involved in the successful save.

“They are my heroes,” Alison Stahl said of the people she visited with during an emotional reunion on April 12. “Just being in their presence today, I feel like I’m in the presence of royalty. Even though that was such a traumatic time, they were consistent, they were strong, they were competent, they were calm, they were professional. They helped my son and I understand what was going on all the time.”

Alison Stahl went on to say she appreciated the honest and frank discussions with care providers while her husband was sedated.

“Even when hard things had to be said, they said it with such compassion and, when they could, hope,” the heart patient’s wife added.

Steve Stahl still has more healing and cardiac rehab ahead of him but told the group at the reunion he is feeling stronger and stronger each week. Stahl said he is already looking forward to getting back on the slopes of Stowe next winter.

“They saved my life,” Stahl said of the many people who had a hand in his successful recovery. “And if one step didn’t happen properly, I wouldn’t be here right now. I have all these people to thank. They never gave up on me.”

There was a separate reunion in Stowe on April 13 where the Stahl family had the chance to thank others who participated in the rescue, including Mike Jolly, the off-duty nurse from Central Vermont Medical Center who first spotted Stahl in his time of need. Several members of the Mt. Mansfield Ski Patrol were also at that meeting, according to a UVM Health Network employee who was in attendance.

Dr. Prospero Gogo, an interventional cardiologist at the University of Vermont Medical Center, told NBC5 News that Stahl was one of six skiers he and his colleagues treated this season alone. All of them went into cardiac arrest at ski areas, Gogo said. Five of them were saved, he emphasized, thanks to access to defibrillators and swift action along that chain of survival.

“We want to make sure that kind of infrastructure is available for everybody,” Gogo said. “Making sure that schools have AEDs, that ski areas have AEDs, and that people know how to do CPR. It doesn’t have to be ski patrol. It could be someone walking by. If you see that happen, if you know how to do CPR, you will help save a life. So that’s really one of the lessons you can learn from this kind of story.”

Stahl was in the hospital for 10 days after his arrival on the critical care flight, he said, adding that his doctors have told him his heart function is now in the range of a completely healthy person. Two months after the near-death experience, Stahl said he has started getting back to work at his small business doing home improvements.

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