MIRACLE ON SOUTH STREET
Dave Nakamura says he is a walking miracle thanks to the quick action of his friends and local medical community.
The Cerritos resident was recently walking around the track at Liberty Park with his run/walk fitness class.
One moment he was fine, the next moment he went into cardiac arrest and collapsed face first onto the ground suffering a massive cardiac arrest.
That Thursday seemed like any other day. Mary Nakamura had talked to her husband just a half hour before his near-fatal attack.
“Dave seemed fine,” says Mary. “There was no indication that he was ill or that he was on the verge of a heart attack.”
Dave was about five feet away from his instructor Jennifer MacDuff when he collapsed face first after suffering from what could have been sudden death.
Dave and Mary say what happened next can only be described as a miracle. Immediately, a team of people, who Dave describes as his “angels,” began working together to save his life.
Even after Dave collapsed everyone stayed calm. First, several people called 911 and then checked Dave’s pulse. A team of four—MacDuff, classmates Robert Vasquez and Richard Martinez and an unknown stranger—took turns giving Dave CPR.
When the ambulance arrived, paramedics rushed Dave to Lakewood Regional Medical Center, Los Angeles County’s newest ST Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) Receiving Center Network. Soon after, Dave underwent bypass surgery to unblock the coronary arteries that supply blood to the heart.
“From start to finish, it’s been a miracle,” says Dave, who retired from the Gardena Police Department after 30 years of service to the community. “You never plan on having a heart attack, but if you or a loved one does, I hope their angels guide them to my medical team at Lakewood Regional Medical Center to help them.”
The County's STEMI Receiving Center Program was implemented in December 2006. Through strong working relationships between paramedics, emergency departments and cardiologists, patients experiencing a heart attack are quickly diagnosed, transported and treated at one of 34 facilities in LA County. Lakewood Regional Medical Center is the county’s newest network member.