LAYTON—When Kaysville doctor Layne Kamalu dropped to the floor in his office suffering a cardiac arrest, his employees jumped into action, giving him CPR before EMS arrived. A crew from the Kaysville Fire Department Station 61 B Shift responded within 90 seconds. 

After shocking Kamalu four times they were able to get a heartbeat and transported him to Holy Cross Hospital – Davis where he was rushed to the Cath Lab within 14 minutes and a coronary angiogram was performed. A stent was placed and flow was restored. Against all odds, Kamalu survived the “Widow maker.” He is back to work and doing well.

The hospital held a special luncheon and presentation Wednesday, May 20, to recognize the efforts of the first responders with the CommonSpirit Humankindness Hero Award.

“We are thrilled to honor our EMS partners this week,” said Kyle Brostrom, hospital president. “They are the unsung heroes in our community who quietly respond to people in need every day. What a blessing for our community that they were able to save Dr. Kamalu’s life. I also want to thank our amazing hospital staff who also played a critical role in this amazing story.” 

“We just had a call come out of a cardiac arrest,” said Kaysville Firefighter/Paramedic Ethan Bascom. “When a cardiac arrest call comes out it dispatches our engine, our ambulance and our medic rig. Luckily it ended up being across the street from the fire station so our response time was about 90 seconds.”

Bascom said when they got there, CPR was already started by the facility. “It ended up being a doctor that works and lives in Kaysville. They recalled that it was just out of the ordinary. He just grabbed his chest as he fell down. There were no warning signs or anything prior to that.”

The team moved in and put a LUCAS on Kamalu, said Bascom. “It’s an automated chest pressing machine. It’s almost like a plunger on your chest. So we started that and then we started going through our repetitions, just like what we normally do in cardiac arrest.”

Everyone has a different role, he said. “Some crew members are over the airway, I’m working on IV access to get mediations and putting the LUCAS machine on. We also communicate with the family if they’re there and everyone plays a vital role.”

After that Kamalu was transported to the hospital, said Bascom. “It worked out really well.”

Time plays a huge role, he said. “Whenever we have a cardiac arrest event you always talk time is brain. So we talk about the golden hour. We can get them to the hospital and get into the Cath lab so they can move a blockage or whatever is going on with the coronary artery or an area in their heart.”

The hospital itself was fantastic, Bascom said. “We notified them and as soon as we arrived they were ready with all of their teams, everything that they needed and it was just seamless for us to pass on and they could move forward.”

That’s really where all of this comes together, he said. “It’s great in the case where fire came and we did our job when we responded. But it goes so much further than that where the hospital did their job. It takes effort between everybody to make sure that we had this outcome.”