MINSTER — Several employees of Globus Printing & Packaging, in Minster, are being hailed as heroes after their quick actions are said to have saved the life of a man having a heart attack on company grounds Thursday, March 8.
According to Tony Schmiesing, a sales manager at Globus, Bob Kirby was on-site Thursday afternoon to pick up a load of product on behalf of his company, Buffalo Cartridge, which is a Globus customer based in Findlay.
Kirby was loading the product into his vehicle with the help of shipping department employee Mark Cordonnier.
When Cordonnier entered the building to retrieve some paperwork, he called on employee Anita Wuebker to go outside and continue assisting Kirby.
“She found (him) unresponsive; he had collapsed,” Schmiesing said. “So, she took off running into the building and, luckily, the first person she saw was an employee of ours named Greg Langenkamp, who happens to be a volunteer firefighter for the North Star Fire Department.”
Wuebker quickly explained the situation to Langenkamp, who ran outside and immediately started administering CPR to Kirby.
Wuebker then made an announcement over the company PA system, requesting the assistance of another employee, Missy Simmons, who had previously been a long-time EMS volunteer.
“At that point, a handful of us took off to see what was going on,” Schmiesing said.
Upon seeing Langenkamp performing CPR on Kirby, Schmiesing said he and a couple of others began running toward the building’s front office to retrieve the AED, or automated external defibrillator.
“We found out at that moment just how long our building is,” Schmiesing said. “Somebody peeled off and actually called someone up at the office and told them what was going on. So, an employee, named Chris Stueve, had the AED before I could get to the office and was already running back to where (Kirby) was.”
Langenkamp and Wuebker, who had continued to perform CPR during this time, also administered two shocks via the AED before the Minster Chief of Police arrived, Schmiesing said. Police Chief David Friend then took over CPR until EMS was on scene.
“(EMS responders) got him in the ambulance and they came back Friday morning to tell us they did get the man revived about eight minutes after he was in the ambulance, and that he was considered clinically dead for at least 10 minutes,” Schmiesing said. “They confirmed that the CPR by (Langenkamp) and (Wuebker) did save the guy’s life — they were very confident that without those actions, (Kirby) probably would not have made it.”
Schmiesing said by sharing this story, he hopes to inspire other companies to take initiative to prepare employees for situations like this.
He said Globus holds bi-annual CPR training for any employees who are interested in becoming certified and that after this incident, a training session will be held within the next few months.
Schmiesing also said the company had invested in the AED around six to eight years ago after a similar occurrence had taken place on company grounds. The cost, at the time, was about $1,200 for the machine.
“That certainly seems pretty inexpensive for what ended up happening,” he said.
“It’s just amazing how fast you have to react and you can’t grab a manual and read up on what you’re supposed to do,” Schmiesing said of the incident. “I was just so impressed with (Langenkamp) and (Wuebker); it was absolutely impressive.”
