Smith: Ukiah-area man survives cardiac arrest thanks to paramedics who were near his home

Daulton Abernathy might well have died last week. Died cursing heartburn.

But as he sat at home south of Ukiah, rubbing his chest and terrifying his wife Linda- on their 35th wedding anniversary - there happened to be a firetruck rolling up his road. With two paramedics aboard.

When Abernathy's breathing and heartbeat stopped, the four-legged stool he sat on tipped forward but didn't topple and fling him onto the floor. Under even slightly different circumstances, this would likely be an obituary for the 66-year-old Umpqua Bank loan officer.

“He's been reborn,” Linda Abernathy said.

The evening of Nov. 19 the two of them were at their place on Old River Road, preparing to bag and freeze Costco tamales. A pained look came over Daulton's face.

“I have really bad heartburn,” he told Linda. She quickly feared it was something worse.

She told him to sit on one of the stools a few feet away. Moments later, his head dropped back. His wife saw two or three jolts undulate his chest.

Linda dialed 911.

She watched her husband's face turn gray, felt his hands go cold. He exhaled through his mouth; she learned later it was the involuntary discharge of the last breath.

Unable to tell if he was dead or alive, Linda said, “I kept telling him that I love him.”

She couldn't believe how fast firefighters arrived at their rural home - only about two minutes after she'd dialed 911.

A Ukiah Valley Fire Authority engine already was on the Abernathy's road when Linda made that call. Captain and paramedic Skip Williams and his crew happened to be returning from a small fire nearby.

The firefighters rushed into the Abernathy house to find Daulton seated on the tipped-forward stool, its back two legs in the air, Daulton's left arm resting on the counter. He showed no signs of life.

Firefighters moved him to the floor and Williams and engineer-paramedic Ricky Dean administered CPR and a defibrillator. Daulton took a breath.

His revival was highly unusual. About 90 percent of people who suffer full cardiac arrest outside a hospital die.

Williams said that had his crew been at their station when the call from Linda Abernathy came in, “it would have taken us, we're thinking, eight to nine minutes to get to the house.”

For Daulton Abernathy, that would likely have been too long.

He's back home now, wearing an implanted defibrillator. He and Linda are grateful for so much and to so many - the firefighters, certainly, and friend and retired fire captain Pete Bushby and neighbors John and Inger Mattern, who all rushed over to assist.

Daulton's happy, too, that he can't remember most of what happened the night of his and Linda's anniversary.

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IT'S ORNAMENTAL: Every year brings new reasons to take in the historic charm, finery and gifts of the Holiday Open House at Santa Rosa's Luther Burbank Home & Gardens.

This weekend's attractions include the sale of wooden ornaments of Burbank's 1889 greenhouse. They're made by the creator of the Fountaingrove Round Barn ornaments, which also will be sold at the open house from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

If, like me, you go mostly for the tea and cookies, they'll be there, too.

You can contact columnist Chris Smith at 707 521-5211 and chris.smith@pressdemocrat.com.