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Heather and Brad Best (centre) with family and BC Emergency Health Services representatives during a Vital Link award ceremony held in Fort St. John, Feb. 28, 2023. From left: Jonathan Brnjas, BCEHS; Des Fallis, BCEHS, Nathan Best, BCEHS; Brad Best and Heather Best; John Tebulte; Ann and Karl Musgrove; and Honour Guard Michael Lee, BCEHS.
Vital link to saving husband’s life Matt Preprost editor@ahnfsj.ca
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Heather Best had been home from a vacation in Cuba for little more than 24 hours last May, and was enjoying a morning with her husband Brad when she heard a sudden crash in the kitchen. When she called out and Brad didn’t respond, she rushed to find him collapsed and unconscious on the floor. His heart had stopped and he was in cardiac arrest. Jumping into action with the guidance of 9-1-1 dispatchers, Best saved his life by providing critical CPR until first responders arrived. On Tuesday, Best was presented with a Vital Link Award from BC Emergency Health Services, which honours the quick-thinking actions of bystanders during a cardiac emergency. She provided CPR until local firefighters and BCEHS paramedics arrived to help on May 29, 2022. “It’s a bit overwhelming,” said Best, who first took CPR
training while working at the MacEwan Centre for Sport and Wellness in Edmonton more than 20 years ago. “It was the most terrifying event in my life, but when the 9-1-1 dispatcher, she said, OK, I want you to start doing compressions on him, my brain clicked. And I said, Ah, I know how to do that, and it was because of that training.” John Tebulte, unit chief of the local Station 860, says 45,000 Canadians have a cardiac arrest outside of a hospital setting each year. Good quality CPR can increase survival rates as much as 75% if started immediately, he said. “For every minute that CPR is not done, survival rates drop by 10 per cent,” said Tebulte. “So the fact that she initiated CPR right away on Brad is why he’s standing here today. What gets done before we get there, and our colleagues, makes a huge difference.” Firefighters were first on scene within five minutes of the 9-1-1 call that day, and
took over to help get Brad’s pulse returned and him breathing again until paramedics arrived. He was taken to local hospital where he was stabilized, and later flown out to the cardiac care unit in Kelowna. There, doctors ran tests and determined there was no concrete cause to why Brad’s heart stopped beating. He doesn’t remember anything leading up to the emergency. “Everything I remember is just in Kelowna, so I don’t remember a single thing about the day,” he said. “My heart got a big, resounding pass, and they installed a defibrillator, and if it ever acts up again, it’ll shock me... It hasn’t happened yet,” he said. “That was the sum gain of being in Kelowna, that determining there was nothing wrong with my heart and then putting in a defibrillator.” Best was nominated for Vital Link award by critical care paramedic Stephen Shipman, and Tuesday’s ceremony took place in front of the
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ambulance that transported Brad to the hospital. Both he and his wife are grateful and thankful for the emergency responders who came to their rescue that day. “Everyone that we dealt with, the paramedics and the firemen and the nurses and the doctors, the critical air paramedic crew, they were all fantastic, and they made a world of a difference to our experience,” said Heather. “Our nurses and doctors and from Fort St. John get a lot of crap, and I want to say that they were phenomenal that day,” she added. “They were so helpful and kind, and I really felt that we got the best care that day.” “It’s easy to invoke the word team, but it was a team, beginning with Heather,” said Brad, who himself has a paramedical background through his work in the military. “It was phenomenal and my wife really was the beginning of saving my life.” “I am extremely lucky, and beyond lucky.”