N.S. nurses to reunite with Ont. referee they saved at hockey tournament
Terri Arnold and Melissa Hines performed CPR on George Harrison at a hockey tournament
When Terri Arnold first saw George Harrison, she feared he was dead.
It was February, and Harrison had collapsed after having a heart attack at a hockey tournament in North York, Ont.
"He was very pale," said Arnold. "I don't know if he was answering me or not, but I was trying to talk to him: 'George, you need to stay with us.'"
Arnold was at the tournament with her friend and colleague, Melissa Hines, to watch Hines's daughter play.
Arnold is a registered nurse in the women and children's unit at Valley Regional Hospital in Kentville, N.S., while Hines is the clinical nurse lead.
They were in line for coffee at the rink when they heard calls for help.
Harrison, a referee at the tournament from Stoney Creek, Ont., was on the ground.
Two other referees were performing CPR on the 68-year-old as his face turned blue.
The nurses took over and used an automated external defibrillator to shock Harrison while they waited for an ambulance arrive.
Hines said they had no idea he survived until later that day, when his son texted the nurses.
"I think it truly sank in at that moment. This was a dad, this was a grandfather, and that he was doing OK," Hines said in an interview.
Five months later, Harrison is in Halifax for the first time, eager to meet the women who saved his life.
While he's talked to them briefly on the phone, Harrison said he didn't want to talk about the experience until they were face to face. The trio will meet for supper in Halifax on Friday night.
"I owe them a big thank you. I'm going to give them a big hug," said Harrison, who recalls nothing of the experience.
"Talking to my doctor, the doctor at the hospital, he said that those two nurses obviously knew what they were doing, otherwise you wouldn't be here."
Harrison ended up needing a double bypass after his heart attack, but has now recovered fully and is back on the ice.
While he was able to thank the referees who helped him months ago, he's been eager to get to Nova Scotia and finally meet Hines and Arnold.
"I'm just grateful they were in the spot they were in. I got lucky I guess in those regards," he said.
The experience is equally emotional for the women. They say they've never needed their skills out of the hospital, and they usually help newborns, not adults.
"With our career here, we go through some quite traumatic events often enough and you don't really get that followup, so it's just nice that he reached out to us and wants to meet us. It's exciting," said Hines.
Arnold and Hines hope the story inspires more people to brush up on their CPR skills.
"Anyone taking first aid and CPR courses are so important because you never know — it can happen anywhere," said Hines.
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