Keesler medics resuscitate firefighter's heart

  • Published
  • By Steve Pivnick
  • 81st Medical Group Public Affairs
KEESLER AIR FORCE BASE, Miss. --  "If this had happened anywhere else, he may not have survived."

This is how 81st Medical Group Commander Brig. Gen. (Dr.) Kory Cornum summed up the actions by the Keesler Hospital staff credited with saving the life of a Biloxi firefighter March 14.

Fire Capt. Kevin Landrum and eight other Biloxi firefighters were training with their Keesler counterparts at the Keesler fire pit near the base's White Avenue gate and adjacent to Irish Hill Drive when he started to feel something was not right.

"I thought I had overextended myself," he recalled. "I was getting progressively worse. As a trained first responder, I knew the signs of a heart attack. I informed my crew I didn't feel well and one of the guys saw I wasn't looking too good. He asked if I needed some oxygen so they started administering it. The oxygen didn't help with the symptoms which were getting progressively worse. That's when someone made a 911 call to get more help."

Master Sgt. Lukus Hancock, 81st Medical Operations Squadron emergency services flight chief, recalled, "We received a call from the Keesler live-fire pit at about 11 a.m. Because he was a civilian, American Medical Response had been contacted to take him to the emergency room. However, we responded to the call. The Keesler ambulance crew arrived on scene before AMR. Upon evaluation, the patient's condition wasn't looking good and the decision was made to transport him to our ER. Within 10 minutes of his arrival, we had stabilized him and he was taken to the (cardiac catheterization) lab."

Lt. Col. (Dr.) Steve Kindsvater, chief of cardiovascular services for the 81st MDOS, and his team then went into action. He said Landrum "had a thrombotic occlusion -- a blood clot stopping all blood flow -- to the main vessel in the front part of his heart which caused a life-threatening drop in his blood pressure. Furthermore, he had six episodes of ventricular fibrillation arrest (a heart electrical problem that occurs suddenly and is 100 percent fatal if not treated). In the setting of a heart attack, restoring blood flow generally fixes both the low blood pressure and the electrical problem, as it did for this patient. Mr. Landrum is a very fortunate man."

Landrum remarked, "I can't say enough about the care I received, starting with my crew, to the Keesler ER crew that brought me to the Keesler Hospital. I arrived at the hospital just in time."

He added that he understands at one point he was clinically dead.

"They defibrillated my heart four times. After the fourth time, I didn't feel any more pain and I told them (the cath lab team) I was ready to leave. I had been in agony the previous 45 minutes. The comparison to having an elephant sitting on your chest doesn't truly describe what I was feeling -- it felt like the whole building was on my chest and the elephant was standing there, laughing." Landrum said he was conscious the entire time, except when they "restarted my heart."

Discussing the event, Landrum stated, "I'm 100 percent certain that if this had happened anywhere else and I had been taken anywhere else, the time involved would have cost me my life." He said only 46 minutes elapsed between the 911 call and undergoing the cardiac catheterization procedure.

When he was taken to the cath lab, he noted, "It seemed Dr. Kindsvater's entire crew was there. It was like someone had kicked an ant hill; people were everywhere. There was no waiting around -- they got with it! You could tell they knew what they were doing; they didn't miss a beat! I don't know if it was divine intervention that they all happened to be there at that time."

He added, "The care I received in the Keesler Hospital throughout the incident -- in the ER, the cath lab and nurses and techs on the floor -- was first class." (Landrum remained in the Keesler Hospital until the evening of March 18.) I'm very grateful and happy to be alive! I know my family is, too."

Landrum commented that his cardiologist at Ocean Springs Hospital expects him to make a full recovery and he should be able to return to work.

"I still have some recuperation to undergo, but my outlook is that I am definitely going back to work."

Landrum has a connection to Keesler and the hospital. His father, Joseph, retired from the 81st MDG in 2004 after 47 years of federal service and coincidentally has been cared for by Dr. Kindsvater.

Landrum and his wife Renee' reside in Harrison County. They have three adult children and a granddaughter.