Crews work nearly 3 hours after worker stops breathing

A Cooperative Grain and Supply employee who collapsed and stopped breathing at work Monday spent nearly three hours being worked on by paramedics and hospital staff before he was taken to Kansas Heart Hospital.

Ambulance crews from both Hillsboro and Marion responded to the crop production facility at 10:52 a.m. and worked on Lowell Foth, giving him cardiopulmonary resuscitation and defibrillating him twice before he was taken to Hillsboro Community Hospital by Hillsboro ambulance.

Marion ambulance attendants assisted and accompanied Foth to the hospital. Ambulance crews stayed at the hospital until nearly 2 p.m.

Ambulance crews often remain on hand when a patient’s condition is very critical, director Chuck Kenney said

“If he collapsed and stopped breathing, we send the closest ambulance and the other ambulance comes to back them up,” Kenney said. “If the patient is still unstable, both ambulances stay if possible.”

At 12:12 p.m., Hillsboro ambulance attendants asked that a LifeStar helicopter be summoned to transfer Foth to Kansas Heart Hospital.

When a call came in at 12:35 p.m. about a woman choking in a farmhouse near 100th and Alamo Rds., both ambulances were still at HCH.

Attendants asked for Tampa ambulance to be dispatched to stand by at Canada in case of additional calls, but not enough Tampa personnel were available.

Ambulance attendants then asked dispatchers whether an ambulance from another county could be found. Hesston ambulance and Goessel first responders went to the farmhouse.