Bartlesville Man Saved by Co-workers

Friday, July 21st 2000, 12:00 am

By: News On 6

A Bartlesville man is alive, in part, because his coworkers were trained to use an automated external defibrillator, or A-E-D. Co-workers revived Abdulwahab Mohamad after he collapsed at Phillips Petroleum Wednesday.

"A call came out over the emergency channel that there was a man down in the weight room,â€ said Wayne Roper, who preformed the life-saving procedure. â€œHe was laying feet out this way and head up.â€

Roper is part of a company rescue team trained to use a defibrillator. Phillips Petroleum company purchased the machines a few years ago.

"Myself along with 3 other people set up the A-E-D and got it attached and it asked to shock the victim, so we delivered the shock and one shock and the pulse rhythms came back," Roper said of the procedure preformed on Mohamad.

Cardiologist Gary Dystra says Mohamad had a small heart attack. He says he wouldn't be alive today if his fellow employees hadn't used the A-E-D. "That was why he lived, no question," said Dystra.

Mohamad came out of surgery at Saint John Hospital safely. He now has an implantable defibrillator near his heart. He says he knows what would have become of him if his company wouldn't have bought A-E-D's. Mohamad, husband and father of seven, also believes his faith in God and his co-workers are the reason heâ€™s still alive.

"I'm the only income for the family,â€ said Mohamad. â€œSo if I was gone, they would be lost. I will never get out from the debt of the people who helped me, especially Phillips management for purchasing this equipment."

The Jane Phillips Medical Center distributed several defibrillators throughout the community recently. It is the first hospital in the country to do so. The Bartlesville hospital leaders say the recent lifesaving event proves why the machines are so important.