California PA Saved Fellow Surfer
When surfer Ron Darland suffered a heart attack on the beach, California emergency medicine physician assistant Nancy May helped save his life, according to the Orange County Register.
The last time Nancy May had seen him, Ron Darland was on the beach at San Onofre, being placed into an ambulance, blue in the face.
She thought that despite her best efforts, he was a goner.
Thursday they met again, two strangers, embracing on the same beach where a heart attack very nearly killed Darland on Monday, Sept. 8.
"Doesn't he look good?" May asked.
"Better than the last time!" replied Darland, 55, from Carlsbad. "Another day to surf!"
May and nuclear medicine tech Terri Plunkett kept Darland alive for 20 minutes until an ambulance arrived at the isolated beach.
"Nancy started taking control and was our super hero in this situation," Plunkett said. Everyone helped.
For about 20 minutes, May, Plunkett and Austin used CPR, battling to keep Darland alive. The Carlsbad surfers' friend Johnny Johnson dialed 911. May continued to lead the CPR even after lifeguards arrived at the remote southern stretch of San Onofre Surf Beach with an automated external defibrillator and oxygen. It was touch and go. Darland would have a pulse, then no pulse, even after shocks from the AED. As Camp Pendleton paramedics took over and loaded him into an ambulance, he was blue in the face and the onlookers were afraid they had lost him.
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