He Was Dead For 28 Minutes; A Homeless Man Saved His Life

HYANNIS, MA — Aug. 7 is the day George Dakin Jr. died, which makes it odd that he can recall that day at all. It's blurry for the 64-year-old retired architect from Melrose. He remembers telling his wife to get tickets for a ferry ride from Hyannis to Nantucket. He remembers saying he would go park the car.

He doesn't remember going into cardiac arrest while walking through the parking lot. He doesn't remember that his heart stopped before he fell to the hard pavement of the parking lot.

He doesn't remember that he was dead for nearly 30 minutes.

Because of an extraordinary set of circumstances, though, he lived to tell about it.

Of all the details Dakin doesn't remember about that day, the most important is the homeless man who helped bring him back to life by applying chest compressions for nearly 10 minutes before paramedics arrived.

Two or three weeks before that day, CHAMP Homes Inc., a faith-based transitional home for homeless people that's based in Hyannis, had trained its staff and residents to perform cardiopulmonary resuscitation — CPR. Austin Davis, who lives at the home, was among them. Though he was certified in California, he was encouraged to get re-certified in Massachusetts.

Davis, 57, was drinking coffee on Aug. 7 when he heard a commotion outside. Someone screamed for help. He sprang into action and saw CHAMP Homes facilities director Mark Adams pushing on the chest of a man lying on the ground of the parking lot. Davis took over.

"When I started doing compressions on him I was looking at him and I could tell he was already gone," Davis tells Patch.

The 10 minutes it took for the ambulance to show up felt like an hour, he says.

"When you're doing it, it's like time stands still," he says. "It probably felt longer than it was. When you're practicing, time is time. But when you're actually in the middle of it and somebody is dependent on it, time kind of stands still."

Paramedics took over the compressions and then brought out a hydraulic device known as a "thumper" that automatically performs CPR. Davis watched as paramedics loaded Dakin into an ambulance and shocked him with a defibrillator, desperately trying to jump start his heart. Dakin flatlined, Davis says.

Dakin had suffered a full blockage of his LAD artery, a condition known as the "widowmaker" because it's almost always fatal. Hospital records showed he was dead for 28 minutes before medical staff could get a pulse, he says.

"No one could believe it," Dakin says. "The ambulance folks didn't believe it. The doctors didn't believe it. They said if you're in the hospital and you have an LAD blockage in the hospital you won't survive it — even if you're in the hospital!"

His family received grave news at the hospital. Doctors told them to prepare for the worst.

"It was 28 minutes he didn't have a heart beat," they told his wife and daughter. "It looks like the people did a good job giving him CPR, but even if he survives, chances are that mentally he won't be all there. He'll have brain damage."

Two of the eight days Dakin was hospitalized are blacked out, he says. But he pulled through. And while he ultimately remained hospitalized for weeks after some complications, he somehow managed to avoid much — if any — brain damage.

Davis was stunned when Jodi Dakin Loughlin, Dakin's daughter, told him her father had survived. He says he was just as elated as she was to hear he was alive.

"She said that it was because of our efforts that he survived," he says. "And that was my thank you and my blessing right there."

Around Thanksgiving, Dakin was finally healthy enough to meet the people at CHAMP Homes who saved him, including Davis.

"I told him 'it's good to see you upright!' " Davis recalls telling Dakin.

It was an emotional meeting for both men, but particularly for Dakin. Finding the right words to tell the man responsible for saving your life was not easy. Dakin had thought about what he wanted to say, but when he finally got to meet Davis face-to-face, he struggled to get the words out.

"I had some prepared thoughts I was going to share with them and I found that I couldn't even get all the way through them because it was so emotional for me," Dakin says.

When it came to thanking Davis, "thank you" just seemed "totally inadequate," Dakin says, adding:

"The best thanks that I can show, being given this second chance at life, is to prove myself worthy of the gift and to do something that can hopefully make a difference in his life."

After the new year, Dakin and his family agreed they wanted to do more.

Davis, a native of Los Angeles who moved to Massachusetts three years ago, was working part-time at the Hampton Inn & Suites in Yarmouth, about a mile from CHAMP homes. Jodi Dakin Loughlin called the hotel and told them his story. She asked the management to consider hiring him full-time. They told her Davis was a great employee and they had no idea about his living situation. They were happy to accommodate.

It was also Jodi's idea to launch a Go Fund Me campaign for her "hero." She initially hoped to raise $10,000 to buy him a safe, working vehicle to commute to work and cover vehicle expenses. Any money left over would be applied to a security deposit, first and last months' rent and gas cards, she wrote on the site.

The campaign raised more than $12,000 in a week. As of Thursday, it stood at about $13,000.

George Dakin was blown away by the outpouring of support from his friends and family. People who aren't in a position to give money were donating $100, he says.

Davis says he's still trying to wrap his head around the whole thing. He says the Dakins are "very good people" and that they'll share a bond forever. He called them his "new family."

While he's grateful for the Dakins' appreciation, Davis says he's still getting used to the generosity extended to him. He was hesitant at first to agree to the campaign. He says he didn't help resuscitate Dakin because he wanted to be rewarded.

"I wasn't expecting anything and I didn't want anything," he says. "I'm human and I need things, but that wasn't what I did it for."

Jodi Dakin Loughlin and Beth Wade, executive director of CHAMP Homes, are managing the account. The Dakins helped get Davis into new car — a silver 2012 Toyota Corolla — to replace the car he had been driving, a "raggedy bucket" that cost Davis money he didn't have just to keep running.

Davis says he's been saving for months and planned to move out of transitional housing even before the campaign. The outpouring of support has "expedited" those plans, he says. Now he thinks he will be in his own place in a few months.

Additional money donated to the Go Fund Me campaign will help him cover health insurance and rent for a year, the post said.

Go Fund Me is a Patch promotional partner.

Photo credit: Go Fund Me