QUICK THINKING SECURITY OFFICERS SAVE CONVENTION CENTER STAFFER

Quick Thinking Security Officers Save Convention Center Staffer

The annual Amazon Web Services learning conference, AWS Re:Invent, was held in-person for the first time in two years at the Wynn Las Vegas Convention Center this past November. The hotel and conference center were overflowing with guests. Security officers Dakota Speer, Ronald Schaber, and Shakila Coleman had their hands full attending to their usual responsibilities while responding to requests for assistance. In the late afternoon of November 29, Dakota and Richard responded to a medical emergency at the front desk and as a precaution grabbed the automated external defibrillator (AED) on their way. That forethought turned out to be serendipitous for one conference center employee.

Unexpected turn of events

David Gorski spent the day checking in conference attendees and answering questions at registration. Around 6 p.m., he decided to take his dinner break and made his way through one of the hotel bars toward the break room. As he crossed the marble floor, he suddenly dropped to the ground, striking his head on the floor with such force that guests later described the sound as a bat hitting a baseball. While attending to the medical emergency at the front desk, a call came over the radio requesting assistance in the bar where David collapsed. When Ron and Dakota arrived with the AED already in hand, David was unresponsive and didn’t appear to be breathing. They suspected sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) and immediately began cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR). Shakila arrived next. “David was on the floor, unconscious, and losing color,” she recalls. Dakota and Richard continued CPR while Shakila opened David’s shirt, attached the electrodes, and turned on the AED. The ZOLL® Powerheart® G5 told the rescuers to stand back while it delivered a shock. “The device’s voice prompts really helped. The instructions made it easy to know when and how hard to compress the chest,” Shakila recalls. “We really helped each other,” Dakota says. “The AED was clear, easy to use, and it did what it was supposed to do.” Together they delivered three rounds of compressions and shocks before emergency services arrived. EMTs started an IV and took David to a local hospital for treatment.

A speedy recovery

Doctors determined that one of David’s arteries was blocked and implanted a stent. He remained in the hospital for 10 days and says he felt great on his return home. He has no memory of the event beyond deciding to take his dinner break. “I felt fine; I didn’t have any issues at all that day,” David recalls. He is very grateful that Wynn Las Vegas was equipped with a ZOLL AED and staffed with security officers whose quick thinking saved his life that day.

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