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Canton-Potsdam Hospital MD helps save life of heart attack victim at Ottawa playoff hockey game

Posted 4/25/15

POTSDAM -- A man in the stands at a Stanley Cup playoff game in Ottawa Sunday is alive today at least in part due to the work of a Canton-Potsdam Hospital physician. Dr. Lars Thompson, a urologist at …

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Canton-Potsdam Hospital MD helps save life of heart attack victim at Ottawa playoff hockey game

Posted

POTSDAM -- A man in the stands at a Stanley Cup playoff game in Ottawa Sunday is alive today at least in part due to the work of a Canton-Potsdam Hospital physician.

Dr. Lars Thompson, a urologist at C-PH and an avid hockey fan, was in Ottawa at the Senators-Canadiens game Sunday when a commotion broke out in some seats in front of him.

“I thought it was a bunch of Canadiens fans getting excited, but my wife elbowed me and said ‘You’d better get down there,’” Thompson said.

It turned out that the man “was in arrest” with a heart attack, Thompson said.

“In all honesty I can’t take credit for what was a collective effort,” he said. A nurse, who he didn’t know before but whose name is Laurie, was also nearby in the stands and was already giving him CPR. Other nurses, EMTs, another doctor and other volunteers made their way to the scene.

Trying to keep the man alive, working on him there in the stands, “I told Laurie, ‘This isn’t working. Let’s get him out of here,’” and they and “a big guy” moved the victim to where they had more room. By that time there were four or five nurses working on the man, Thompson said, and before long he was on his way to Queensbury-Carleton Hospital.

Thompson said that someone in the man’s circumstances ordinarily wouldn’t have survived, but so many skilled people on the scene so quickly probably saved his life.

At last report, Thompson said, the man’s condition was listed as fair.

At the Wednesday night game Thompson and nurse Laurie were honored in a regular part of Sens hockey games where they present “local heroes during commercial breaks, usually a soldier” or someone else who helped in a time of need. The two of them were given Sens sweaters with their names on them.

But Thompson maintained his modesty, giving credit to all who were there, and expressing satisfaction at “how many people know CPR, how many people know how to use an AED, how many people showed up to help, how fast they got him to the hospital. Lots of people do things like this silently.”