PNE staff member recognized for helping save life of father, son in separate incidents

A PNE staff member has been recognized for helping save the lives of two people — a father and son — in two separate incidents, two years apart.

Jayson Louie says he is grateful to be alive. On Feb. 21, he went into cardiac arrest after playing drop-in hockey at the PNE Argodome. Fortunately, his teammates went into action, performing CPR and alerting PNE staff, who brought and administered an automated external defibrillator (AED).

“I woke in the hospital, two and a half days later, after having had stent surgery,” he said.

But for PNE staff member Mike Nasr, who helped administer the AED on Jayson, it was deja vu. Two years earlier, he also helped save the life of Jayson’s father, Harry, who had chest pains while playing hockey in the same drop-in league at the Argodome.

“Just a bit of shock — two people from the same family, same situation,” Nasr said. “It was a funny thing, [I was] caught off guard.”

On Monday, B.C. Emergency Health Services (BCEHS) presented Nasr with two awards, one for each of his life-saving efforts. Awards were also presented to the other people who helped save Jayson’s life.

“These people truly are a vital link in the chain of survivability,” said Brian Twaites, BCEHS public information officer.

“By doing CPR, by using an AED, we can more than double the chance of survival for people suffering from sudden cardiac arrest.”

The two incidents are a reminder of why it’s so important for everyone to get first aid training, he says.

“60,000 people a year in Canada suffer out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest,” Twaites said.

“So if everyone was trained in CPR, and AEDs were available for people to use like that, think about how many more people could actually go home to their family and friends.”

Nasr says he got first aid training more than 20 years ago, after someone with first aid training helped save him following a motorcycle accident.

“Helping people – that’s all I really wanted to achieve,” he said.