CLAY COUNTY – In November 2019, a local father sustained cardiac arrest at his daughter’s soccer game at the Clay County Soccer Complex. It was the last thing Chad Eason, 39, expected to happen.

Luckily, help was nearby. Thanks to the quick-thinking nurse and off-duty firefighter in the crowd watching their child play, they kept Eason’s blood pumping until paramedics arrived on the scene. Clay County Fire Rescue Training Captain Billy Futch remembers the day vividly.

“I was working an overtime day on Rescue 22 out on Fleming Island. We had a cardiac arrest call at the Clay County Soccer Complex out on Lakeshore Drive. It was a 39-year-old male who had no prior medical problems to that,” he said.

Upon arrival, the couple was already on the field, initiating chest compressions and an AED provided by the soccer complex. According to witnesses, they worked to revive him for 11 minutes.

“When a person suffers sudden cardiac arrest, you have a window or time frame starting from that moment, typically 10 minutes. Those 10 minutes are significant because that’s how much-oxygenated blood you have in your body,” Futch said.

Eason had little chance of survival, yet he beat the odds.

“We ended up using two monitors for a total of 700 joules to shock the patient. He had already been shocked multiple times upon our arrival,” Futch said. “We shocked him with both monitors. In our world, the threshold diminishes after multiple shocks, but it was just amazing. Within ten seconds, he was talking. He was alive and grabbing the forearms of the firefighter doing CPR. And he’s alive and well today.”

The initiative of the two bystanders and the fast-acting fire rescue department saved this man’s life.

“He was there to watch his daughter play soccer, and he’s still alive to watch his kids grow up and be a part of their life. It’s an amazing, easy thing to do,” Futch said.

Futch is now a training safety officer for Clay County Fire Rescue. He’s also trained Clay County Sheriff’s Office and Clay County Emergency Management officials, as well as many first responders from across Northeast Florida. They learn the basics of cardiac life support, including CPR, how to administer drugs such as Epinephrine, and an AED to correct heart rhythm.

“Specifically in Clay County, a lot of people in the northeast region are referred to as a duel role fire department. We are EMTs as a minimum. We also have paramedics and quite a few nurses. To become a firefighter in the state of Florida, you must have a medical emergency technician and basic life support training.”

“Most of our firefighters do CPR every day they are on duty if it is from trauma or a cardiac arrest,” he said. “In this profession, we do CPR quite often.”

Not only does Futch train medical personnel, he also emphasizes the importance of training the community.

“We definitely urge people to become CPR trained. Even if they don’t have someone who is at risk, it is a valuable skill to learn. Anyone can have a sudden cardiac arrest – no matter their age,” he said.

In 2021, Clay County Fire Rescue partnered with PulsePoint to empower residents to save a life from sudden cardiac arrest. According to the American Heart Association, more than 356,500 cardiac arrests occur each year away from hospitals, making it the third-leading cause of death in the United States. In Clay County, more than 300 people experience sudden cardiac arrest annually and need immediate assistance.

For extremely time-sensitive emergencies, PulsePoint notifies nearby individuals willing to take quick life-saving action.

“Clay County is blessed to have PulsePoint. You can download that app, and basically, it alerts you if there is someone having an emergency in an area. If you are in a half-mile radius of someone who is in need of CPR, it will actually alert you and map you to their location,” Futch said, adding that it alerts bystanders of nearby AEDs.

“I can’t emphasize enough, get in touch with us, whether it is a small or large group. We want to be able to prevent emergencies, not only respond to them. Between the app and people being CPR trained, even Hands-Only, we’re going to increase the odds of survivability of our county and residents,” he said.