Jeff Calcagno, his wife and grown sons stop briefly in Chehalis today after spending more than a week in an Olympia hospital.
By Sharyn L. Decker
Lewis County Sirens news reporter
CHEHALIS – Jeff Calcagno is tired, but he’s alive.
The 55-year-old Battleground resident finally left the hospital today, nine days after his heart stopped as he was passing by Winlock on Interstate 5.
Calcagno had been driving home from Kent, where one of his business’s four warehouses is located.
He doesn’t remember much at all about the entire day, but several local troopers, firefighters and medics likely won’t forget.
It was about 3:30 p.m. on July 18, when his Subaru Legacy twice drifted into a semi truck in the next lane, struck the inside concrete barrier and then veered off onto the right shoulder into a ditch.
Two passing motorists, both emergency room nurses from the Portland area, stopped, found him with no pulse and pulled him from his car to begin CPR.
Soon, they were joined by a sheriff’s deputy, trooper, paramedics from Lewis County Medic One and firefighters from Winlock and Napavine.
Resuscitation efforts continued on the shoulder of the freeway. Medics shocked him and administered drugs until his heart was beating again.
Calcagno was rushed in an ambulance to Providence Centralia Hospital, and then transferred to Providence St. Peter Hospital in Olympia with its specialized cardiac care.
Paramedic Clayton Skinner spoke of how unlikely that sort of outcome is, crediting the immediate CPR started by the nurses.
Lewis County Fire District 15 Assistant Chief Kevin Anderson noted how the nurses were in the right place at the right time for the patient.
Calcagno and his wife Pam Calcagno today said even the doctors teared up when they heard the story.
“The cardiologist said 95 percent of people don’t have that outcome,” Pam Calcagno said.
For the first few days, he was in an induced semi-coma state and then recovering, the couple said.
Their 25-year-old son Christopher flew home from where he was working in Afghanistan. Their 21-year-old son Nicholas came and the family stayed in Olympia.
The Calcagnos were told it was just a chance occurrence. His heart just went into an irregular rhythm and then stopped, they said. It was possibly a rare consequence of a heart attack he had a couple of years ago, according to Calcagno.
Yesterday, doctors installed a mini defibrillator in his chest. About the size of a pager, with wires, the device will “kick start” his heart if something happens again, the Calcagnos said.
“It’s like a little team of paramedics in his chest,” his wife said.
His heart is strong and healthy, she said. He did have six fractured ribs, but medical personnel at the hospital just called that “very effective CPR.”
Calcagno said he’s just beginning to realize what happened.
The family said there’s no words to express their gratitude for strangers who saved his life.
“We can’t say how much we appreciate these people and want to meet them,” Pam Calcagno said.
Her husband feels the same way.
“There’s amazing people out there,” Calcagno said. “You don’t know it till you’re on the other side of that coin.”
Nicholas said he plans on taking a CPR class now.
Assistant Fire Chief Anderson notes the incident should serve as a reminder to the critical role people can play in their communities if they are trained in CPR.
District 15 wants folks to know they can get more information about obtaining training in CPR and first aid, by contacting them at 360-785-4221.
•••
For background, read: “Passing nurses help revive driver whose heart stopped on Interstate 5” from Wednesday July 18, 2012, here
Tags: By Sharyn L. Decker, news reporter