LOVELAND, Colo. (May 14, 2021) -- When you think of Facetime, you picture fun conversations between children and their far-away grandparents or a tearful talk with a deployed soldier and her stateside husband.
You don’t think of a mother watching from 600 miles away while someone performs CPR on her 20-year-old son.
Yet that’s what happened when Noah Butler, a basketball player at Coffeyville Community College in Kansas, went into cardiac arrest while visiting his girlfriend in Loveland. Noah was with Katie Haag watching the reality TV show “The Circle” when he suffered cardiac arrest. Katie screamed for help, and her mother, Tina Haag, responded.
Tina is a registered medical assistant and knows CPR. While she had never used CPR in a lifesaving situation, her training kicked in immediately. She couldn’t find Noah’s pulse, so she told Katie to call 911 and she began chest compressions.
Tina continued CPR until a police officer arrived. The officer did CPR until Thompson Valley EMS Capt. Shain Vick took over.
As the Thompson Valley EMS team asked questions about Noah’s medical history, Katie reached out to his family via Facetime for help.
Julia Butler, Noah’s mom, said she watched as the paramedic yelled “clear” and they delivered a shock to Noah’s heart. She watched and listened as Noah made unusual noises, and she watched but did not understand what was happening. Why was this other person doing CPR on her son?
They don’t yet know why Noah’s heart stopped. Just two weeks prior, Noah’s team won the National Junior College Athletic Association men’s basketball championship in Hutchinson, Kansas.
With school out for the semester, he came to Colorado to visit Katie, who he met on Snapchat about year ago. Katie was home from Adams State College in Alamosa where she studies elementary education.
Thompson Valley EMS Battalion Chief Tim Seidel said Noah is fortunate that he was at the Haags’ home when this happened and that someone there knew how and was willing to perform CPR.
The EMS team stabilized Noah and took him by ambulance to McKee Medical Center. Three days after the incident, Julia was present in her son’s intensive care room at the hospital to comfort him with kind words and a long hug. As soon as Noah can travel, the pair planned to return to Kansas and connect with local heart specialists to learn more about Noah’s recovery.
About McKee Medical Center
McKee Medical Center, opened in 1976, is a fully accredited, private nonprofit facility in Loveland, Colorado. McKee is owned by Banner Health, a nonprofit health care system with 30 hospitals in six states. It offers emergency care, cancer care, heart care, orthopedics, surgery, obstetrics, pediatrics, rehabilitation, intensive care, lab and medical imaging. For more information, please visit bannerhealth.com/mckee.
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