E-unit call helps save teacher's life

HUDSONVILLE, Mich. (WOOD) - The calls were eerily similar -- both reporting men stricken with heart problems -- but the outcomes were vastly different.

Less than three weeks after Hudsonville firefighters refused to ask a nearby Georgetown Township E-unit to help in a cardiac arrest call, a similar scenario played out in that city.

That first call on Feb. 7 ended with the death of 44-year-old Jerry Smith, who had suffered a cardiac arrest.

This time, however, on Feb. 26, Hudsonville firefighters called the Georgetown E-unit, which arrived in three minutes and helped save the life of Hudsonville Christian Middle School teacher Terry Steenstra.

"I think it made a huge difference," said school custodian Jim Schreur, who made the 911 call. "Because they started the medicine to help his heart, to kick it back."

A source familiar with both cases said a Target 8 investigation that was underway into the death of Jerry Smith led to the change.

In that first call, AMR ambulance was nine miles away at Zeeland Community Hospital and took 16 minutes to get to the scene where Smith was in cardiac arrest. Georgetown's E-unit was less than a mile away, cutting through Hudsonville on its way to a non-emergency "motorist assist" on the highway.  

The E-unit, operated by the Ottawa County Sheriff's Department and paid for by Georgetown Township taxpayers, carries the same life-saving tools and medicine as an ambulance.

An Ottawa County Sheriff's deputy at the scene suggested calling in the E-unit, but Deputy Fire Chief Steve Essenburg refused. City officials say AMR ambulance was just 5 minutes away by that time.

That response led to a meeting with Ottawa County Sheriff's officials, who reminded Hudsonville firefighters that they could call the Georgetown E-unit for help. This time, they did.

The custodian at Hudsonville Christian Middle School made the 911 call at 8:50 p.m., just after parent-teacher conferences.

"Yeah, I've got a guy having a heart problem here at Hudsonville Christian Middle School," the custodian Schreur said.

Then, moments later: "He just keeled over on me."

"He was down and I made him as comfortable as I can, and suddenly he went 'uggh,'" Schreur told Target 8. "He gasped for air. And my main thought was, 'That might be his last gasp.'"

Ottawa County Central Dispatch records show the first Hudsonville firefighter arrived in four minutes.

But, this time, the same deputy fire chief checked almost immediately on AMR.

"If you could advise an ETA for AMR please?" a dispatcher was asked.

And, again, AMR was far away.

"We are coming from downtown Grand Rapids and with the roads, it's probably going to be 15 minutes at least," AMR told a dispatcher.

Within moments, the deputy fire chief called for Georgetown's E-unit, which was nearby.

The E-unit was there three minutes later, AMR took a total of 18 minutes to arrive.

"Oh yeah, he would have been dead," Schreur said. "He would've been dead no doubt. Doctors said that too. Without that response, so we all helped."

The Hudsonville teacher is now recovering at a Grand Rapids hospital.