If it hadn’t been for Army 2nd Lt. Jason Ausman’s serendipitous and swift timing, Dick Talley might not be alive today. After suffering cardiac arrest right after doing a few laps in a go-cart at Autobahn Indoor Speedway in Jessup, Maryland, Talley became unconscious and unresponsive.<\/p>\n
As it so happened, Ausman was just about to take a few spins in the go-cart as well and came out to the track just as Talley had become unconscious. Tally’s heart was stopped for 30 seconds before Ausman rushed over to give assistance.<\/p>\n
Ausman, who spent\u00a0eight years as a paramedic, paramedic instructor and flight medic with the Lee County EMS in Fort Myers, Fla., was able to perform life-saving CPR<\/a> almost immediately after Talley fell to the ground.<\/p>\n Ausman later said, “They teach you that if a person is not conscious and not breathing normally to go ahead and start CPR.” Ausman also refused to let anyone else take over for him.<\/p>\n \u201cI have seen lots of people do CPR,\u201d Ausman went on to say. \u201cI have also seen lots do poor CPR, and if there\u2019s a chance for the victim to make it, you\u2019ve got to keep up good perfusion.\u201d<\/p>\n When the paramedics arrived, Ausman briefed them with what had happened and told them that he believed Talley was in cardiac arrest<\/a>. Though the paramedics initially didn’t believe him, a cardiac monitor revealed that Talley suffered from\u00a0ventricular fibrillation, which is a fatal form of cardiac arrest.<\/p>\n In fact, in most cases, a heart attack like that has a 2% survival rate. Due to the speed and effectiveness of Ausman’s CPR assistance, Talley was helped right away. And because the paramedics were 10 minutes away from the speedway, every moment was imperative for Talley’s survival.<\/p>\n After he recovered from the heart attack, Talley began trying to track down his speedway hero. After calling the\u00a0Autobahn Indoor Speedway directly, he was finally able to track down his savior.<\/p>\n In a voicemail message to Ausman, Talley said, “The circumstances that allowed our paths to cross and your actions are as big as life itself. Just to say \u2018thank you\u2019 seems insignificant for what you did for me. Thank you for life itself!\u201d<\/p>\n