A 76-year-old Kalama man died minutes before the Woodland City Council’s meeting was scheduled to start Monday night, after going into cardiac arrest while sitting in the packed crowd.
Woodland’s council chambers are in the police station, so response was quick, said Mike Jackson, Clark County Fire & Rescue division chief of operations, who was at the meeting filling in a staff role. Jackson and Woodland Mayor Will Finn, whose day job is Washington State Patrol trooper, jumped in to start resuscitation efforts with the help of five to 10 others from the crowd.
“It was a little hectic,” Jackson said. “People recognized there was an issue and were concerned for the welfare of the patient, and started acting quickly to help any way they could.”
With assistance from some Samaritans, they got the man down to the floor, started CPR and used an automated external defibrillator, Jackson said.
Once first responders arrived, they cleared out council chambers, Jackson said, and tried for about 45 minutes to resuscitate the man.
Woodland police Sgt. Jim Keller said he was going to attend the meeting due to expected high turnout.
A group, which included the man, attended the meeting to discuss Second Amendment rights and Initiative 1639, the controversial gun control measure passed by Washington voters last year. Keller said he walked into council chambers a few minutes before the meeting was scheduled to start and saw the situation.
“In the situation we had (Monday) night, it was a contained area,” Keller said. “My focus was to assist the fire department working on the gentleman. Thankfully, Mayor Finn was able to clear the room, allowing me to focus on helping the fire department.”
The meeting was canceled, and most people left after they were cleared out of council chambers. Jackson said three people who knew the man waited there in hopes of his survival.
“The victim had the highest possible chance of survival based on the chance of it happening there,” Jackson said. “We had myself, the mayor and quick response by crews. The AED on-site was a critical piece.”
Jackson praised the quick action from first responders and other audience members at the meeting.
Clark County Fire & Rescue and the Woodland Police Department declined to provide any more details about the man.
“Unfortunately, even having (an AED) 6 feet out the door from where the gentleman was on the ground, in this situation we still weren’t able to bring him back,” Keller said.
