Man, 63, Saved After Having Heart Attack While Surfing

VENTURA — Surfers, firefighters and paramedics worked furiously Monday to save the life of a Burbank man who suffered a massive heart attack after riding a wave at Surfers Point.

It took rescuers nearly half an hour to revive Thomas McDonnell, 63, after he collapsed around 10:25 a.m. while surfing with his son, authorities said. He was taken to Community Memorial Hospital in Ventura, where he remained in critical condition Monday night, hospital spokeswoman Rhonda Spiegel said.

His survival can be credited to a team effort that included two off-duty firefighters and a paramedic who were surfing nearby, and crews of paramedics and firefighters who later arrived, officials said.

Dan Flores of Ventura and Doug McCleerey of Newbury Park, both firefighters for the Los Angeles City Fire Department, administered cardiopulmonary resuscitation for 10 minutes before a crew from the Ventura Fire Department arrived.

Flores and McCleerey were assisted by a third man, who identified himself only as a paramedic from Colorado, Flores said. Both firefighters later said they were surprised to learn McDonnell had survived, because they were never able to get a pulse.

“He made it? That’s sweet!” exclaimed Flores, reached at his Pierpont-area home Monday afternoon.

Ventura Fire Capt. Barry Simmons said McDonnell regained a heartbeat only after being loaded into an ambulance and hooked up to an intravenous drip of heart-starting drugs. Earlier attempts to revive him using electrical paddles had failed, Simmons said.

“It was during the drive from the beach to the hospital that we began to get a good rhythm,” Simmons said. “We were really amazed that he came back after all that time.”

Simmons said he was unaware that the people administering aid at the beach were off-duty firefighters. But it was evident they had some expertise, he said.

“The typical thing is that people start backing up when we arrive. They want us to take over,” Simmons said. “But these guys didn’t back up. They continued to do CPR right until the moment we took over.”

Flores said he and McCleerey often go surfing together on their days off. They were among a crowd of about 15 surfers looking for swells at the time McDonnell had his heart attack.

Flores said he had noticed McDonnell minutes earlier as both men eyed a three-foot wave, he said. “I was going to take off on the wave--it was pretty nice--but I thought I’d let the old guy take it,” said the 44-year-old firefighter.

About five minutes later, McDonnell collapsed while sitting astride his long board, Flores said. Several surfers immediately paddled toward him, got him up on his board and pulled him to shore, Flores said.

As Flores, McCleerey and the Colorado paramedic worked on McDonnell, other surfers gathered those surfboards abandoned during the rescue effort, said McCleerey, 38.

“Everyone that was there jumped in and tried to do something,” he said.

McDonnell’s son had been surfing nearby and arrived about five minutes after his father was brought to shore, McCleerey said. The son told the surfers that his father had undergone triple-bypass surgery in 1995 but had refused to give up surfing, McCleerey said.

“He said he and his dad go surfing all the time, and that if he had to go, this was the place for him to be,” McCleerey said.