Quick action by McConnell AFB pilot saves life

MCCONNELL AIR FORCE BASE, Kan. (USTCNS) --- When Chief Master Sgt. William Karasko, 22nd Air Refueling Wing chief boom operator, was told that one in ten people will use CPR sometime in their life, he never imagined he would be that person.

Karasko witnessed the life saving skills of Capt. Travis Lewis, 344th Air Refueling Squadron aircraft commander, May 12 in the Southwind Housing area when a senior NCO's visiting father had a heart attack.

Lewis said he was driving in base housing when he saw someone lying in a low spot at the end of a driveway. Senior Master Sgt. Terry Barber, 22nd ARW plans and programs, was supporting the person's head.

"I thought the guy might have slipped and fallen and might need some help getting up," said Lewis. "I pulled the truck into a neighbor's driveway and went to see what was going on. Sgt. Barber had a phone in his hand and said, 'I think he's had a heart attack.'"

Lewis said when he couldn't find a pulse or signs of breathing, he cleared the man's airway. The man took a quick reaction breath. The man's eyes were rolled back and he was turning blue.

"I gave him three quick breaths and started chest compressions," said Lewis. "I did that for two repetitions. At that point he started breathing shallowly and he had a pulse rate of about 50."

He said the man lapsed back and he had to start the CPR cycle again until his pulse returned a second time. He and Barber monitored the man until he lost the pulse again just as the McConnell paramedics arrived and took over.

The heart attack victim was Delbert Fowler, father of Master Sgt. Teresa Vincent, the 22nd Aircraft Generation Squadron's Eagle Flight mechanical section chief. According to Vincent, her father is still in the hospital, but is on the road to recovery. He was in a coma for 15 hours after the heart attack, but he is now up and moving around.

"After he was out of the coma, the doctors gave him six months for a full recovery, but now they think it will be even less," said Vincent.

Vincent is very grateful to Lewis and Barber for helping her father. "I know that because they were there, he is alive today," she said. "I'm thankful he was on a military installation where people know CPR and are not afraid to use it."

Lewis, who has been in the service for four years, said he was first trained in CPR as a lifeguard in high school. He was re-certified here during his Self-Aid and Buddy Care training.

"Something like this gives you all the more reason to pay attention in class," he said. "I know I went home and reviewed my emergency procedures." (FROM AIR MOBILITY COMMAND PUBLIC AFFAIRS).