A 72-year-old island man who suffered a heart attack and collapsed on the north-end ferry dock last month is alive and recovering thanks to the efforts of an island physician assistant, emergency responders and ferry workers.
On Nov. 23, the day before Thanksgiving, John Burke was walking down the north-end dock to catch a 1:50 p.m. ferry. All of the cars and pedestrians had been loaded, and he was the last to walk on, but he suddenly collapsed, face-down on the loading ramp. It would later be determined that he suffered a heart attack with no warning signs that he could recall.
As is standard practice, Washington State Ferries’ employees called over the boat’s PA system for anyone with medical experience to come to Burke’s aid. Island physician assistant Colleen Carette, who lives near Burke on the Burton Loop and is friends with him, answered the call along with an intensive care nurse. At the time, Carette was heading to the train station to spend time in Idaho for Thanksgiving.
On Friday, Carette, who works at the University of Puget Sound’s student clinic, recalled the story by reading notes she took detailing her actions.
“I haven’t looked at these since I wrote them at midnight that night. I couldn’t sleep,” she said. “I thought he died.”
She said she left her luggage on the ferry and raced down to Burke. His breath and pulse went from being slow, to none at all and, despite opposition from the ferry workers nearby, she and the ICU nurse rolled him over onto his back to begin CPR.
“As soon as we turned him over, I just thought, ‘Oh my God, it’s Captain John.’”
He had no pulse, she said, so the ferry workers brought down the defibrillator. He was given two or three shocks, to no avail.
“I’m yelling, ‘Stay with us, John. We don’t want you to go.’ And I start crying,” Carette said.
Living in the same neighborhood, Carette and Burke are friends and have nicknames rooted in Carette’s involvement as a volunteer at Camp Goodtimes — an island camp for children suffering from cancer.
“Everyone there has a nickname. She’s Tinkerbell,” Carette’s wife, Sue Carette, said. “We live in the Burton Loop, and the forest there is a fairy forest. John always walks through and cleans the trails, trims the branches, but he sends an email every year around Labor Day saying we better clean up our stuff. And he hates glitter.”
Continuing with the “Peter Pan” theme, Sue Carette said his nickname is Captain Hook.
“It’s all in good fun,” she said.
Shortly after Colleen realized the man was Burke, the ICU nurse left, and a doctor who had been in the ferry line came to help. Then Vashon Island Fire &Rescue emergency medical technicians arrived. They were followed by South King County Medic One paramedics.
Andy Johnson, a VIFR paramedic, said that the incident was out of the ordinary for VIFR not because of the location of the aid call, but because of how the department responded. He said that at the time, the department did not have enough island paramedics to cover all of the shifts, so some South King County medics were helping out. The South King County medics responded to the scene and, with the help of the ferry workers and medical personnel, were able to get Burke’s heartbeat back and transport him to Swedish Medical Center in Seattle, where he underwent a quintuple bypass.
“It was a little bit of a preview of what it will be like post-transition,” Johnson said, referring to the impending change that will make VIFR’s paramedics part of larger South King County Medic One system.
He said “without a doubt” that the CPR started early by Colleen and the other medical professionals played a huge part in Burke’s positive outcome.
When The Beachcomber reached out to Burke on Thursday, who is back to living life in Burton, he said that he would like to “give his accolades to everyone involved.”
“We’re really lucky to have this caliber of talent available on Vashon,” he said speaking of all involved. “WSF did an admirable job getting the paddles on, VIFR did a great job and Colleen started CPR right away.”
On Wednesday, 12 ferry workers were given Life Ring Awards for their involvement in the incident. Included in the workers honored were dock attendants Patti Snyder and Tim Chiswell, as well as terminal supervisor Phil Olwell.
“It was a full-blown rescue situation at the bridge,” Olwell recalled.
Other ferry workers honored included the crew of the Cathlamet: Captain Hazard Book; Chief Mate Marsha Morse; Quartermaster Erik Ferrel; Able-bodied Seamen Charles Leahey, Mark Savio and Owen Miller and Ordinary Seamen James O’Neill, David Benshoof and Michael Foster.
Back on Vashon, Colleen and Burke reunited on Friday for the first time since Burke’s attack.
“It was a wonderful reunion,” she said.
Burke is a woodshop teacher at Vashon High School and said he will be returning to work after the winter break.
