Cardiac arrest survivor teaches first CPR class
HUNTLEY — Carlos Spann had just returned from the grocery store, where he purchased some cereal and yogurt an ordinary event.
What happened next was anything but routine. His daughter and wife, Bianca and Adocia, helped save Spann’s life using CPR. (Cardiopulmonary Resuscitation).
“She wasn’t nervous at all,” Spann said of the Oct. 4, 2021 incident. “My daughter Bianca and my wife Adonica were so calm as when she called 911. As a military veteran, I had trained my wife and daughter in CPR and First Aide.” He said he had bought some Fruity Pebbles cereal, and the yogurt and taken a shower. “My daughter heard a thud when I fell on the floor and I was unresponsive.”
Huntley Fire Protection District paramedics transported him to Northwestern Medicine Huntley Hospital within 10 minutes. He fully recovered but had some rib injuries.
“I’m back,” is the t-shirt Spann wears, some 15 months after the incident.
Spann has completed a CPR class and beyond that is a CPR instructor for the HFPD sponsored by the local fire department union. He instructed his first American Heart Association (AHA) CPR/AED class, a group of Senior Care Volunteer Network of McHenry County members, on a snowy Feb. 16 morning.
The three-hour AHA curriculum is based on compressions and breaths, to the beat of “Stayin’ Alive” by the Bee-Gees. CPR certification is good for two years.
Interest is especially high in CPR education this February, which is AHA’s Heart Awareness Month.
“We get calls every day for CPR classes after the (Buffalo Bills) Damar Hamlin cardiac arrest and save,” HFPD Director of Mobile Integrated Health Lt. Kelly Gitzke said. “We have had Boy Scouts to senior citizens here.”
Hamlin is recovering from the cardiac arrest he suffered Jan. 2 at a football game in Cincinnati.
Gitzke said CPR needs to be done immediately in the case of a cardiac arrest. “They happen frequently, we had one yesterday across the street.”
Gritzke explained if dispatched for a cardiac arrest incident, multiple first responders go en route. These include one fire apparatus with three paramedics; one ambulance with two to three paramedics; one battalion chief and multiple police officers. In 2022, HFPD responded to 51 incidents of cardiac arrest.
Spann visited to the Huntley fire station No. 1 one year after the Oct. 4, 2021 cardiac arrest for a Celebration of Life event. The former Fort Bragg, N.C based soldier, who served in Operation Iraqi Freedom, retired in 2012. He ran a Huntley business for 11 years before “my family convinced me to fully retire.”
Gitzke said others who are standing by can help with giving the person information on CPR steps.
Monthly CPR classes
HFPD has scheduled classes once a month as well as from group requests. The future classes are March 29, April 29, May 31 and June 24. They are scheduled for 9 a.m. to noon at HFPD Fire Station No. 1. Contact Gitzke at 224-654-6968 or [email protected] if you are interested in participating. Cost of the class, limited to 15 people, age 14 and older, is $35. CPR classes are not for health care providers.
“With the knowledge and skills you will learn in these courses you may save the life of a loved one, friend or neighbor,” Gitzke said.
Celebration of Life
The HFPD’s next Celebration of Life event will take place at 9 a.m., Feb. 21 at HFPD Station No. 1. In this cardiac arrest, two women performed CPR at Del Webb Fitness Center on a 79 year old, who survived.
