Sheriff's officer saves life at VonsSheriff's special officer Bob Kiefer has saved lives by training others, and most recently, by helping man in Vons supermarket.
By SALVADOR HERNANDEZ
The Orange County Register
SAN JUAN CAPISTRANO By some accounts, Sheriff's Special Officer Bob Kiefer has been involved in about half a dozen life-saving incidents.
In most cases, it was his guidance – not a hands-on role – that saved a life.
Though he may not have always been present, many others have followed his directions as they tried to get a still heart beating again. As an instructor for Automated External Defibrillators, or AEDs, his students with the Orange County Sheriff's Department have saved at least four lives.
Kiefer was off duty a recent Sunday afternoon, shopping for groceries with his wife. That's when the 63-year-old officer swung into action. He used the same life-saving techniques he had taught more than 300 deputies to do over the years.
Kiefer and his wife were waiting in line at Von's in San Juan Capistrano when he heard a commotion. He turned to see a man on the floor, thrashing his arms and legs, banging on his head on the floor.
Kiefer dashed over to the man who was gasping for air. Realizing the man was having a seizure, Kiefer tried to secure him before he hurt himself.
Someone dialed 911 while Kiefer held the man's head and neck down to keep him from hitting it on the floor. Kiefer tried to hold him still, afraid that his thrashing would bring down the shelves down on top of them. A fellow shopper also tried to stabilize the man.
Couldn't find a pulse
After about two minutes, the man stopped thrashing, his breathing slowed as did his heart rate. Kiefer couldn't find a pulse and started CPR.
It was in the third cycle the man began breathing again, and that his pulse returned – along with the seizure.
Kiefer was trying to hold the man still when he spotted paramedics approaching.
The man was taken to a Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in San Clemente where he was treated.
It's about training and a quick reaction, Kiefer said. It was Kiefer's attention to detail that saved a young man from strangling himself with his shoelaces one day in a Laguna Niguel courtroom holding cell.
He joined the Orange County Marshals in 1999 at the age of 52, after retiring from working in development. He was trying to fulfill a childhood dream.
"My dad loved cops and this was a way for me to fulfill a job," he said. "I was physically fit, I was a trained fighter. I knew one end of a gun from the other."
In 2001, as he worked as a Sheriff's Special Officer in the Laguna Niguel courthouse, Kiefer began working with Ray of Life founder Helena Jacobson to try and have defibrillators in every Orange County courthouse. Jacobson founded the organization the same year to provide defibrillators in public areas.
Heart attack hits
While surfing on Memorial Day weekend in 1996, Kiefer noticed the signs of an approaching heart attack and was able to drive home before it hit.
He was in the emergency room of Saddleback Memorial Medical Center in San Clemente, looking at his daughter running toward his bed and holding his six-week-old grandson before he lost consciousness.
"When I blacked out, I flat-lined," Kiefer said. "I woke up with my cardiologist pinching my toes."
It was the quick response of doctors that saved his life. There's no substitute for professional care in a well-equipped hospital, but defibrillators provide that cushion until doctors are available, Kiefer says.
Through his involvement with Ray of Life and defibrillators, Kiefer began teaching deputies how to use the machines. He taught deputies in the dignitary protection unit, deputies in Musick Jail, and deputies in various cities. Four of his students have saved someone's life using it.
He's proud of that, he said, proud of his deputies and proud that he may have somehow been involved in saving lives. "It maybe false pride, but its pride," he said.
On Aug. 31, while having an angioplasty, Kiefer suffered another heart attack.
This time it was on the operating table. He's been lucky twice, he said -- the right equipment and the right people at the right time.
