"National Park Service Morning report
Great Smoky Mountains National Park
Life Saved Through Prompt CPR
Friday, September 03, 2004
At 8:40 p.m. on July 20th, dispatch received a 911 call reporting that a visitor at Elkmont campground Betty Ann Lauzier, 40, of Pompano Beach, Florida was having trouble breathing. Rangers and a Gatlinburg ambulance were immediately dispatched to the campground. The caller remained on line and continued to provide updates on Lauzier’s condition. Within minutes, she went into convulsions and lost consciousness.
Ranger Scott Kalna arrived on scene at 8:47 p.m. and found Lauzier in a sitting/lying position in the passenger seat of her car and unconscious. A friend, xyzyx, was attempting chest compressions on her while she was in the partial sitting position.
Kalna had xyzyx halt compressions and help him move Lauzier out of the car and onto the ground.
Kalna determined that she was not breathing and repositioned her head using the head tilt/chin lift method. After opening Lauzier’s airway, she began gasping for air and resumed breathing on her own. She was taken by ambulance to Pigeon Forge, where she was transferred to a medevac helicopter and flown to the University of Tennessee Medical Center in Knoxville.
[Submitted by Rick Brown, District Ranger]"
