When Dennis Savage was asked to chip in $40 so his hockey team could buy an automated external defibrillator (AED), he didn't really see the need. But now that he owes his life to the machine and his trained teammates, he sees things differently.

Savage and team mate Dave Jenkins, both of whom suffered sudden cardiac arrest while on the ice this year, are alive today because of the investment.

The Ogopogo Senior Men's Hockey Club bought the defibrillator about eight years ago, and made sure all its members were trained in CPR and using the AED. It sat ready, but unused, until this year.

Savage was playing with the team in March when disaster struck.  He carried the puck behind the goal, passed it to one of his forwards, and then dropped to the ice. "I took two more steps and went down flat on my face," says Savage.

Goalie Steve Berry knew something serious had happened and called for the defibrillator while teammates performed CPR. "It took three shocks from the AED before I started breathing again," says Savage.  "They say I was dead for six to eight minutes, something like that."

Savage believes he would not have survived without the equipment and the fast action from members of the hockey team, and says in retrospect, the cost was nothing. "Some of us balked at paying $40, our share of it, and I was one." In his 50's at the time, Savage didn't expect to need the AED. But since many of the players were older, he agreed to chip in. "Cheap," he says now of the expense.

Fully recovered and back on his skates, Savage was there when fellow team member Dave Jenkins suffered his sudden cardiac arrest in August.

"For eight years or so we carried [the AED] from the storage room out to the bench and back to the storage room," says Savage. He was glad it was there when he needed it, and when Jenkins needed it. "The day that Dave Jenkins required it, I was the one that put it out on the bench."

"We were getting ready for the BC Senior Games and we had just started to practice," says Jenkins. "I was only on my second shift and felt a bit dizzy." That's the last thing he remembers.  "Apparently at that point I collapsed face first on the ice."

Again, teammates performed CPR on one of their own while the AED was fetched from its spot on the bench. "They hooked the defibrillator up, first shock I started to breathe again." Without the fast response, "We wouldn't be talking here, that's for sure," he says. "That would have been it."

Jenkins says the action prior to paramedics arriving saved his life. 

"I was alert and sitting up probably for ten minutes before the ambulance arrived. Cheap insurance as far as I'm concerned," Jenkins says of the AED purchase. "I think every place should have them. Every public building."

The Heart and Stroke Foundation says sudden cardiac arrest takes one life every four hours in BC. Victims rarely survive more than 12 minutes without help. While the terms are often used interchangeably, cardiac arrest is not the same as a heart attack. During a heart attack blood flow to the heart is restricted but the heart usually does not stop beating. In cardiac arrest, the heart suddenly stops beating without warning.

Jenkins and Savage were both present Sunday in West Kelowna at a free training session on CPR and AED use. Nearly 150 people attended the session.

For more information visit the Heart and Stroke Foundation's website.

Photo: Muriel Archibald

Dave Jenkins (R) and Dennis Savage take in CPR training in West Kelowna on Sunday.