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BRAVIN
G
THE ST
ORM
Gutierrez and
Emporia Rec
team save
man’s life
By Mary Ann Redeker
[email protected]
A perfect storm happened
on Thursday, June 2, at the
Emporia Recreation Center.
A group of men were playing pingpong in the community room, when one of them
suddenly collapsed.
When program supervisor
Amanda Gutierrez heard the
commotion, she sprung into
action.
“I heard our office man-
ager, Stephanie Dreasher, say
to someone, ‘You want me
to call an ambulance?’ That
made me think I needed to
get up out of my chair and see
what was going on,” Gutierrez said. “I saw that a couple
of the guys who normally
play pingpong were in the
room, so I peeked my head in
and could see the gentleman
lying on the ground.”
Dreasher said the incident
started when one of the men
who was playing pingpong
came to her and asked her to
call 911.
“He’s kind of a funny
guy who likes to tease so I
asked him if he was serious,”
Dreasher said. “He said, ‘Call
911, we need an ambulance!’
Amanda was coming out of
her office and went in the
room to see what was going (automated external defibrillator) machine. I ran and got
on.”
Gutierrez said if the story the machine and by the time I
was to be told correctly, she got back, he had started comhad to recognize retired pressions. I went ahead and
cut the gentledoctor Kendall
“It proved to me
man’s shirt off
Wright, who was
applied the
in the room with
just how important and
pads and turned
the man when
she arrived.
knowing CPR is and the AED on.
analyzed
“Dr. Wright
knowing what steps hisIt heart
beat
was with the paand said, ‘shock
tient,” she said.
to take. Time is
advised.’ So I
“I asked him,
critical.”
went ahead and
‘What do you
need from me?’ AMANDA GUTIERREZ, shocked him
and took over
and at that point,
Program supervisor,
I didn’t know Emporia Recreation Center c o m p re s s i o n s
from Dr. Wright.
what was wrong.
I did about two
I didn’t know if
the man fell, passed out or rounds of compressions and
what. Dr. Wright asked me shocked him twice with that
if I had a stethoscope. I told AED. Then we could tell he
him I didn’t, but I had an AED had a heart rate. We could tell
he was trying to breathe. We
had oxygen on him the whole
time. Emergency medical services got there and I said to
them, ‘He’s all yours.’”
Dreasher said she credited
Gutierrez with saving a man’s
life.
“Amanda totally kept her
cool,” she said. “It was amazing because the guys in that
room were older guys. One
of them was a doctor and
he was doing the resuscitation, but it just wasn’t going
quick enough. So Amanda
jumped in and said, ‘Let me
try!’ She immediately got the
guy breathing. She knew how
to work that AED and she did
not panic. I’m the person who
panics, but she was so calm
through the whole situation.”
Gutierrez contributed her
calmness to Wright.
“I’ll be honest — it was
so good to have Dr. Wright
there,” she said. “I knew what
to do and I was doing it — but
somehow — he was my confidence. There were times that
the gentleman was trying to
take a breath and I was wondering, ‘Should I keep going
with the compressions?’ and
Dr. Wright said to keep going,
so we did. We kept up with
the compressions until the
AED machine told us that a
pulse had been found and to
stop compressions.
“I think my training took
over. I know that because
I teach CPR so often and it
was so familiar to me. I knew
what I was supposed to do. I
Please see CPR, Page 3
MEET THE PRIMARY CANDIDATES
Theresa Briggs
The Emporia Gazette
EDITOR’S NOTE: The Emporia Gazette sent a questionnaire to all candidates
involved in a primary race
runoff for both the national
and state races in this area.
These are the responses of Kelly
Atherton, Olpe, and Theresa
Briggs, Reading, both Democrats, who are running for the
House Seat 76 being vacated
by Peggy Mast. The winner of
the primary Aug. 2 will face
Republican Eric Smith of Burlington.
Responses from the candidates for House Seat 60 will be
published Wednesday; for the
U.S. Senate, Thursday; and for
the U.S. House of Representatives, Friday. There is no primary for Kansas House seat 51
or Senate Dist. 17.
Advance voting at county
courthouses is open until noon
Aug. 1. The polls are open 7
a.m. to 7 p.m. Aug. 2.
VOL. 125, NO. 21
Kelly Atherton
State House of Representatives, Seat 76
Q
A
When thinking about the
future of the state, what concerns you the most?
Governor Brownback’s economic plan has failed to create
sufficient revenue to keep our state
solvent. While the tax rates for
some were reduced slightly, the fact
that LLCs do not pay taxes puts an
unfair burden on those in the working class who are already struggling
to make ends meet. Add to that the
fact that we have the highest sales
tax on food in the nation, and it’s
evident that Brownback’s plan is
allowing corporations to have the
same benefits as everyone else without having to pay for them.
In the tax plan there was also a
trigger to reduce tax even more if
state growth exceeded 2 percent!
The LLCs have already proven that
they are not reinvesting the money
saved back into their businesses to
expand or to increase jobs, etc.
When taxes are cut, it doesn’t
make government smaller. Taxes
State House of Representatives, Seat 76
Q
A
are what we pay to have the services provided that we need for
quality of life — great schools, law
enforcement, road and bridge repair, in-home services so that our
parents and grandparents can stay
Please see Briggs, Page 3
When thinking about the
future of the state, what concerns you the mo