Nurse helps save FA grandfather Tom Broadhead goes into cardiac arrest during Ponies football game

Ed Imbert remembers the noise. The crowd was going wild in Dover-Foxcroft. It was Sept. 13. Friday the 13th and the Foxcroft Academy Ponies had a 12-6 lead over Winslow with 3:50 left in the game.

The Black Raiders had won 24 football games in a row and had the ball.

Imbert was sitting next to his father-in-law Tom Broadhead. They had more than a casual interest in the game. Foxcroft Academy receiver and safety E.J. Imbert is Ed’s son and Broadhead’s grandson.

“It was the most exciting time of the game,” Imbert recalls. “He [Broadhead] passed out. I’ve been trained in CPR and I knew that we had a real serious situation.”

Broadhead had gone into cardiac arrest. He needed medical assistance and he needed it fast.

Several doctors were at the game and Imbert began calling for them.

Down on the Foxcroft Academy sideline the coaches and players noticed a commotion in the stands.

For head coach Paul Withee it was deja vu. Just last November, Withee had to leave the sidelines and go into the stands during the Eastern Maine Class C championship game when his father, Frank Withee, began having trouble breathing. Withee’s father turned out to be OK in the end, but it had been a rough experience for the coach.

“It brought the night my father got sick back to me. It was tough for us,” Withee said.

As the clock slowly wound down on the game, doctors were attempting to determine if the 66-year-old Broadhead had a pulse.

A nurse takes over

Jeri-Ann Gilbert is a registered nurse who lives in Greenville where she works the emergency room at Charles A. Dean Memorial Hospital and Nursing Home.

Her son, Bobby, transferred to Foxcroft Academy from Greenville High School this year and is a sophomore starter on the football team. In an ironic twist, Bobby lives with the Imberts while attending school.

Jeri-Ann Gilbert made the trip to Dover-Foxcroft to watch her son play. She didn’t get to see the end of the game.

Gilbert saw that something was happening and saw Imbert calling for help. When she arrived she knew immediately what needed to be done.

“I’m used to working in a hospital so I’m used to having everything right there. I guess I was a bit bossy but that’s OK as long as everything turned out good,” the nurse said.

Gilbert said she shouted to the ambulance crew that had been provided for the game to bring up a defibrillator.

“Jeri-Ann took charge,” Imbet said.

Back on the sidelines, the game was almost over. The Ponies were going to win. E.J. Imbert had mixed emotions as he watched the medical team working on his grandfather.

“It was a great game for us,” E.J. Imbert said. “But we didn’t know whether to cry for joy or cry for sorrow. It was crazy emotions.”

Broadhead was given four shocks with the defibrillator before reviving.

Jeri-Ann Gilbert said that early defibrillation was the key. She said without it Broadhead likely would have “digressed to asystole,” a case in which the heart is not beating at all.

“He was basically dead and brought back to life at the game,” Ed Imbert said. “We’re looking at it as a blessing.”

After Broadhead had been taken away in the ambulance Jeri-Ann Gilbert had two questions for Imbert.

“She said ‘I hope he’s OK. Ed do you know who he is?’ She had no idea he is my father-in-law. And she wanted to know if we won the game,” Imbert said.

Broadhead was taken to Mayo Regional Hospital in Dover-Foxcroft and then transferred to Maine Medical Center in Portland the following day where he remains for evaluation.

Don Perryman can be reached at 990-8045, 1-800-310-8600 or dperryman@bangordailynews.net