Sudden death brings new lease on life
By Jon Brines, Special to The Placer Herald
When Rocklin resident Mark Storace woke up in the hospital, he had no idea what happened to him.
His wife told him the story of how he died. She happened to be home with him when his heart stopped.
“I hear this big thud,” Cyndi Storace explained. “And it was a really weird feeling I got that this wasn’t right. I went running into the exercise room and he was face down on the treadmill.”
She immediately called 911 and summoned help; firefighters stationed at Rocklin Fire Station No.3; just a mile away.
“His face was blue,” Captain Rick Holmes remembers. “When we got there he looked like a crumpled mess, in a fetal position, against the wall with his face into the treadmill.”
“I kept thinking, ‘no this isn’t happening,’” Cyndi said. “We have too much more to do with our lives. At that point, I put all of my faith into the fire department.”
According to the American Heart Association, nationwide more than 95 percent of sudden cardiac arrest victims die before reaching a hospital, resulting in approximately 250,000 deaths each year, some with no heart problems.
The firefighters performed CPR on Mark and shocked his heart nearly three times to get him to the hospital alive.
“We don’t know the end result of the call,” said fellow firefighter engineer Chad Vert. “We could save them and never even know. I think we learn how to cope with that. I did what I could in my realm and I have to be happy about that. Otherwise we wouldn’t sleep at night.”
That was Aug. 7, 2007, and after weeks in the hospital through rehabilitation and recovery Mark had a new lease on life.
“The first thing they usually ask me is ‘did you see a white light,’” said Mark. “Maybe I did. Maybe I didn’t, but I don’t remember.”
Indeed he said it was more of a tally light, giving him purpose.
“You know the saying ‘God is not done with you.’ There is something else I need to be doing.”
Tuesday night in front of the Rocklin City Council, Mark brought everyone that saved his life together to say thank you with a life-saving award of recognition.
From his wife that discovered him and made the call, to the Rocklin dispatcher Pam Henley who sent firefighters Holmes, Vert and Alton Tate to revive him, he calls them the chain of survival.
Holmes explains, when the heart stops, victims have between four and six minutes to get oxygen to the brain.
“The fact that we were two to three minutes away from his house was a blessing. He’s standing here as proof of why we have to have better response times,” Holmes said.
Fellow firefighter Tate is gratified, but humble.
“We train all the time for this stuff. We make sure we’re on top of this skill. Whatever the outcome, hopefully it’s a good one. If it’s not, we knew we did what we were supposed to do,” Tate said.
“I owe them everything,” Mark’s wife told them. “Thank you, very much, for saving my husband.”
Thanking his lifesavers is the first step on Mark’s new mission in life.
“I feel really good doing it,” he said. “Talking to people about the chain of survival, about how people can get involved. I feel a sense of duty.”
He has now started a chapter of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association in Sacramento to get the word out about CPR, Sudden Cardiac Arrest and Automatic External Defibrillators.
“If there is an available AED, use it. At minimum, it will tell you don’t have to use it. Once you put the pads on, it will tell you whether or not the person needs a shock. It will tell you to keep doing CPR,” Mark said.
Mark is now working with Rocklin, Roseville and Auburn police departments to get AEDs in all of the patrol cars, just in case they need one as first responders.
“We know the lord had a hand,” Cyndi said. “He knows that Mark has a lot more to do. It wasn’t his time.”