When the stress of clearing snow from his neighbor’s driveway caused Terry Cullen’s heart to stop beating, the rapid intervention of his neighbors and fast response of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) turned this potential tragedy into a story of survival.
When the stress of clearing snow from his neighbor’s driveway caused Terry Cullen’s heart to stop beating, the rapid intervention of his neighbors and fast response of the Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital Rahway Mobile Intensive Care Unit (MICU) turned this potential tragedy into a story of survival.
Mr. Cullen, a 65-year-old retired oil truck driver from Linden, usually relies on his snowblower to clear his driveway. But heavy downfalls and passes by the plow left snow boulders blocking the driveway of someone on his street on the morning of Feb. 5, and a blower wasn’t going to cut it. Being a kindly neighbor, Mr. Cullen shouldered his shovel and got to work.
TO THE RESCUE
“I was working with the police department when a call came in that there was a man down in the street,” says Dave Hart, a Paramedic with RWJ Rahway’s MICU and Patrol Captain with the Linden Police Department. “When I arrived, he was lying in the snow turning blue and his neighbors were taking turns administering CPR. I grabbed an automated external defibrillator and started trying to revive him while the cavalry rode in.”
An irregular heartbeat and the strain of shoveling snow had caused Mr. Cullen’s heart to stop. The MICU arrived and continued defibrillation while managing Mr. Cullen’s respiration and irregular heartbeat as he was transported to the Emergency Department.
“I woke up at RWJ Rahway,” Mr. Cullen says. “I had four broken ribs, a breathing tube, a swollen mouth, and some missing teeth, but I was alive.”
After stabilizing Mr. Cullen, RWJ Rahway staff transferred him to Robert Wood Johnson University Hospital in New Brunswick, where a defibrillator was surgically implanted and he continued his recovery.
While he’s not quite ready to get back on the golf course, Mr. Cullen is back to enjoying life with his wife, Helen, daughters Kelly Anne and Kim, and two grandchildren.
“Life is good, and it is short,” Mr. Cullen says. “Even if horrible things happen, if you still have breath, you’re OK.”