Hill Airmen put life-saving training to use Published Aug. 4, 2006 By 1st Lt. Ashley Norris 75th Air Base Wing public affairs HILL AIR FORCE BASE Utah -- Lt. Col. Chris Luedtke, 75th Mission Support Group deputy commander, was walking to his gate at the Philadelphia International Airport when he heard a commotion nearby. He heard that somebody was in trouble, so he went over to see what was happening. "Nobody seemed to know what to do, so I took charge," Colonel Luedtke said. The man appeared to have a seizure and went into cardiac arrest. Both Colonel Luedtke and another traveler, an anesthesiologist, checked and neither could find a pulse. They began administering CPR. "I don't know that anything was going through my mind except to get this guy some oxygen and heart compressions," said Colonel Luedtke. Back in 2002 the colonel took time out of his weekend to go to a CPR class. "The breathing came back perfectly... the chest compressions I was a little nervous about," he said. A crowd had grown around the three men and nobody was doing anything. "Colonel Luedtke and the anesthesiologist were doing CPR," said Capt. Michael Verbitski, Ogden Air Logistics Center contracting officer, "and then I was standing over there with a Transportation Security Administration agent who pulled out his cell phone and I told him you need to call for an ambulance." After the agent got off the phone Captain Verbitski asked him if he had mentioned that the victim wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse, so the agent made another call to ensure that the medics had as much information as possible before they arrived. "Everybody just stood around staring, the whole crowd was paralyzed and didn't know what to do," said Colonel Luedtke. "I didn't necessarily know what to do, but I reacted. And I think I lend a lot of that to the fact that we just came out of an exercise where we were responding to crisis 24/7 for a long time. So when this happened it was just an automatic response." Both Colonel Luedtke and Captain Verbitski were returning from Eagle Flag, a two week exercise in building a bare base at Fort Dix, New Jersey. During those two weeks they had constantly been tested in responding quickly to crisis situations and part of their training to prepare them for this and future deployments was Self Aid Buddy Care. SABC is a first aid class that teaches Airmen how to respond quickly to emergency medical situations when no professionals are immediately available. "I'm very thankful that we have SABC. So that we have the basic skills necessary to provide that immediate lifesaver-type response until more competent medical authorities can arrive," said Colonel Luedtke. As Colonel Luedtke continued to give rescue breathing and chest compressions an airport employee arrived with the AED. The anesthesiologist set it up and they administered a shock to the patient. They were able to find a pulse but continued rescue breathing until the medics arrived and took over. Colonel Luedtke and Captain Verbitski said they did what anybody else would have done in their situation. But out of a crowd of dozens of people, nobody else did. They made the effort to help and ensure that a stranger received the medical attention that he desperately needed. Colonel Luedtke did it at his own personal peril because he traded bodily fluids with the stranger without thinking twice about the possible ramifications. "I just did what I think any military person would have done. I did what I thought I had to do; hopefully it made a difference," said Colonel Luedtke.