Sammamish resident Larry Larsen ought to go and get some lottery tickets.
On Jan. 13. Larsen’s heart stopped beating when he suffered a cardiac arrest. He was saved by emergency CPR administered by a team of nearby veterinarians. But it was to be just the first of four occasions over the next three days when Larsen would clinically die. Each time, he was brought back to life, and a week and a half later he walked out the hospital.
On Monday Larsen, truly a blessed man, personally thanked everyone involved in the extraordinary medical emergency, at a special gathering at the Eastside Fire and Rescue (EFR) headquarters in Issaquah.
“He looks fabulous, doesn’t he?” asked Dr. Laurie Anderton, the Overlake Hospital ER doctor who took Larsen’s case, as she smiled at her former patient.
Standing near the ambulance that carried him to Overlake, Larsen met with the doctors, nurses and emergency personnel who worked tirelessly to save his life.
The trauma of his heart-attack caused Larsen to lose him memory of the entire episode.
“This is the first time I’ve met everyone, ” he said.
Standing nearby, EFR Battalion Chief Greg Tryon — who supervised the emergency call as it unfolded — commented on the efforts made that day to save their patient.
“This is what it takes to save somebody’s life,” he said, nodding in the group’s direction, “right there.”
A retired pilot with the Air Force and later with United Airlines, Larsen, 73, was on an afternoon stroll Jan. 13 with a friend near his home when he started to experience chest pains. Suspecting a heart attack, his wife Priscilla immediately called 911 and tried to drive Larsen to the Swedish Medical Center in Issaquah. Before they got there, he lost consciousness and his heart had stopped beating.
From that point, the intervention of strangers all had a hand in reviving the stricken Larsen and bringing him back to life.
“It was amazing,” Priscilla said. “When I think about the fact that he died so many times … We just didn’t know what he was going to come out like.”
While about a dozen health and emergency professionals involved in Larsen’s care were all on-hand for the EFR-hosted event, several others credited with helping save his life were unable to attend.
Alpine Animal Hospital Veterinarians Catherine Cotton, Carrie Webb and Lisa Roberts, who administered vital CPR until first aid responders could arrive, were busy with work — as were many other staff from Overlake Hospital Medical Center. The three veterinarians came to aid the Larsens after Priscilla, having noticed her husband had stopped breathing, pulled into their clinic’s driveway and sought any help she could find.
First aid responders from Eastside Fire and Rescue and paramedics from Bellevue Fire Department arrived soon after to administer the first of what would eventually be 80 electric defibrillations to restart Larsen’s heart and keep it pumping until he could be brought to the Overlake Hospital Emergency Room in Bellevue.
Before he reached the hospital, Larsen’s heart had stopped three times, and didn’t beat on its own for 40 minutes.
“The credit goes to the medics for not giving up,” Anderton said.
Larsen remained on a ventilator for several more days. His heart stopped once more on his third day in hospital. For six hours, doctors and nurses at Overlake Hospital worked to eventually revive him.
By Jan. 19, he was well enough for doctors to place an internal defibrillator in his chest and three days later he walked out of the hospital under his own power.
He is in otherwise good health for a man his age and doctors said his good physical condition was a crucial factor in his remarkable recovery.
Today, Larsen is almost back to full health, and he walks two miles a day near his Sammamish home. While he’s not 100 percent of his normal energy levels, Larsen said he was grateful to simply look forward to the next day.
“God’s been good to me,” he said. “I’m content if I live out the rest of my life this way.”
