Ottawa Paramedics are crediting quick-thinking bystanders who administered CPR as well as public access defibrillators with helping to save two lives in Ottawa Wednesday night.
In the first case, witnesses say, a 58-year-old man was picking up his wife at the RA Centre around 3:17 p.m. when he asked her to drive because he wasn't feeling well.
Witnesses say by the time she walked around the car, he was on the ground. RA Staff members sprang into action, giving the man CPR.
Paramedics say a public access defibrillator or PAD was instrumental in helping the man who was having a heart attack.
Just a few hours later in Barrhaven, another man in his 50s was at a sports field and collapsed. Some in the area ran to get a defibrillator located inside a nearby school and administered a shock to the man, who regained a pulse.
Paramedics say there have been 77 lives saved since the Ottawa Paramedic Service Public Access Defibrillator program was introduced in 2001.
