RESERVIST MAGAZINE SHIPMATES IN FOCUS Sector New York petty officer saves his father's life By Carly Baldwin, Middletown Patch A Middletown, N.J., man saved his father's life Oct. 18, 2020, when the older man had a heart attack in the parking lot of the Hwy. 35 McDonalds. Paramedics who responded to the scene—as well as doctors at Riverview Medical Center—said that if Bill Gardell, 34, had not started CPR when he did, his father, Dennis Gardell, 69, likely would have died. That Sunday afternoon started with a family walk in a nearby park and stopping for some burgers. Gardell's two children were in the backseat; his dad was sitting in the front seat. "We were in the car; we had just gone through the drive-through at the McDonalds and we were still in the parking lot," said the younger Gardell. The four of them had just gone for a 45-minute walk through Tindall Park, but, "it didn't seem like much of an exertion for him. He didn't seem to be in any distress," said Gardell. His father had no history of heart problems, was pretty active and regularly babysat his grandchildren, who call him Pop Pop. "He just was totally normal, and all of a sudden, he became unresponsive and started gagging almost," recalled his son. His father's head abruptly tipped back, and he started to make a gurgling sound. "I saw that he wasn't breathing. I called 911, and they advised to start CPR." Gardell is a former member of Fairview First Aid Squad and also a Middletown volunteer firefighter. He knows how to stay cool under pressure and was remarkably matter-of-fact relaying this story to Patch. He thought about driving his dad to Riverview Medical Center himself—about 15 minutes away—but instead, he did as he was advised by the 911 dispatcher. "I pulled him out of the car and put him on the ground in the parking lot and started doing CPR right away," he said. Lincroft and Fairview paramedics shortly arrived to find a find a man on his back in a parking spot with a younger man doing chest compressions. EMTs Christina Dunham and Scott Agrusti took over CPR (which is very physically exhausting if done by one person). The older man had no pulse, and the team had to give him a defibrillation shock while they kept doing chest compressions. A Middletown police officer arrived and helped with chest compressions. Incredibly, Gardell required nine defibrillation shocks in total, "which is a lot, but it was necessary to save his life," said Agrusti. The shocks had to be delivered every two minutes, and CPR and defibrillation was continued in the back of the ambulance. It was only then, en route to Riverview in Red 38 RESERVIST � Issue 1 • 2021 Bank, N.J., that the older man seemed to move, tried to take a breath and showed signs of life. "This time, when we checked for a pulse, one was there," said Agrusti. Gardell was admitted to Riverview and kept there for four nights, said his son. Doctors told him he had suffered a heart attack. It was immediately starting CPR that likely saved the man, said paramedics. "The doctors at Riverview told me more than once that starting CPR right away saved my dad's life," said Gardell. "I'm so glad I didn't drive to Riverview myself. If I had been driving, I wouldn't have been doing CPR, and he would have died before we got there." "You always have a little bit of oxygen in your bloodstream," explained Django Wiegers, a media spokesman for Middletown EMS. "With CPR, you are moving that oxygen around the body and hopefully getting that oxygen to the brain." Dennis Gardell has no memory of the entire incident. "He's out of the hospital now and staying with my sister," said Gardell. "He's doing okay. He is very grateful, because he knows how lucky he is." Gardell added that his children seem okay, too, even after witnessing such a traumatic event and seeing their father save their grandfather in a McDonald's parking lot. "They seem to understand that he went to the hospital, and they understand he's home now," said Gardell. "We've very close. He's Pop Pop, and he's our number one babysitter, so we want him back." �
