Pro turns medic when golfer has heart attack at Wood Dale course

Bryan Lindstrom never envisioned using a golf cart as an ambulance.

"We actually fix the carts to make them slower so they won't be that dangerous," the assistant golf pro at Maple Meadows Golf Course in Wood Dale said. "So it felt like an eternity driving up to the fourth hole that day. I'm sure it was a lot faster than what it felt like."

Last month Lindstrom was ringing up a customer in the pro shop when someone called to report that a golfer was suffering a heart attack on the course. Lindstrom said he immediately remembered there was an automated external defibrillator at the bar, so he grabbed that and headed to the fallen golfer while another worker called paramedics.

"He wasn't conscious when I got there," Lindstrom recalled. "He wasn't responding to anything. He was breathing faint breaths and making a moaning sound."

The unidentified man was a regular who often played at Maple Meadows, Lindstrom said. When he arrived at the fourth hole, the stricken man's brother was performing CPR. Lindstrom pulled out to the defibrillator and followed the instructions.

"The first thing it says to you when you open it up is 'stay calm,'" Lindstrom said. "I didn't feel like I was freaking out or anything, but other people may have something different to say."

He attached the machine to the man and a shock was applied. Lindstrom said the machine appeared to be readying for a second shock when it stopped itself. The man's heart rate appeared to stabilize after the first shock, and soon Wood Dale Fire Protection District paramedics arrived to take the man to Alexian Brothers Hospital in Elk Grove Village.

"The guy's brother called the next day to say thank you and he said his brother was in stable condition," Lindstrom said, "But neither of them have been back since, so we don't know how he's doing."

Medical information laws have kept Wood Dale fire officials from even knowing how the case turned out.

"We'd like to know, too," Chief Tom Flanagan said. "That's one of those cases where you want to keep an eye out for because of what happened."

The course is operated by the DuPage County Forest Preserve and officials there are feting Lindstrom for his actions. The commission approved purchasing 48 of the portable defibrillators to put in police cars, buildings and golf courses a year ago last month. They cost about $1,000 each.

"Bryan's lifesaving action has certainly proved that if they saved just one life the purchase would be worthwhile," forest preserve President Dewey Pierotti said.

Lindstrom said the machines were easy to operate since they "talk you through it," but it also helped having training when the machines first arrived.

"When you're going through the training it's a little funny," he sdaid, "but when you're actually going through an emergency you quickly appreciate it."