Doctors In July 4th Parade Save Heart Attack Victim
HINSDALE, Ill. (CBS) -- His lifeless body fell to the ground during a Fourth of July parade.
Doctors say he was dead, but on Tuesday the Bartlett resident was breathing and talking about what happened.
He said his second chance at life is all thanks to goodwill, quick thinking and a little help from above.
CBS 2's Pamela Jones has the incredible story from Hinsdale.
"I call it a miracle. I think the big guy's got plans for me," heart attack survivor Ron Raidy said from his hospital bed on Tuesday.
He collapsed during Monday's Fourth of July parade in Hinsdale, suffering a heart attack. Officials said he was dead for as many as five minutes.
"I had no pulse and no heartbeat," Raidy said. He was walking in the parade with the Stanford's Battery Civil War re-enactors group when he collapsed.
"The cannon had just gone off and I do not remember anything. All I remember is waking up in the emergency room," Raidy said.
Luckily, an Adventist Hinsdale Hospital float filled with doctors was right behind Raidy. They jumped into action when he suffered a heart attack.
"He had a full complement of physicians actually sitting over him, doing CPR and at that time he was unresponsive," Dr. Gary Lipinski said.
A Hinsdale police officer also had brought a portable defibrillator to the parade and doctors put it to work, giving Raidy the jumpstart he needed.
Firefighters said Raidy's heart might have been stopped for as long as five minutes, something very few people survive.
Hinsdale firefighter Donald Newberry was with Raidy when he came to.
"His response was he couldn't believe that this has happened. He didn't realize that he even had a heart attack," Newberry said.
Raidy said he wants to thank everyone involved.
"I want to thank Hinsdale. I mean, they're fantastic. The firefighters that were there, the police officers, the doctors," he said.
Raidy will have quadruple bypass surgery at Adventist Hinsdale Hospital on Wednesday and he said when he gets better, he wants to take CPR training.
