Nephew’s quick thinking, CPR skills saves his uncle’s life

During a heavy mist on a cool evening last October, four men began the process of slaughtering and butchering the hogs that Rollie Thums had raised through the summer. Each man knew his part and was ready for the physically taxing job of the evening. Rollie’s son Bryan had the job of killing the hogs. Once all four animals were down, Bryan stepped over the pig fence and walked to his truck in such a way that Rollie could tell something wasn’t right. Two years prior, Bryan had fallen off the roof of his shed while shoveling snow and had broken his back. Two weeks after his injury, a blood clot caused a heart attack and subsequent damage to his heart. Rollie asked Bryan if he was OK, and when Bryan said he didn’t feel right, Rollie asked, “Is it your heart?” Bryan nodded that it was and after putting his gun and knife in the truck, he closed the truck door, and as Rollie states, “He dropped dead.”

Rollie’s grandson Brandon Budimlija was still in the pigpen working on the hogs. He didn’t see Bryan drop to the ground, but when his grandpa yelled that Bryan was down, the tone in his voice immediately told Brandon that something terrible had happened. He leaped over the pig fence, ran to the other side of the truck, and came sliding on his knees to Bryan’s side. Within seconds, he was assessing what needed to happen next. Brandon had taken a refresher CPR course only a couple of months prior, so his instructor’s voice (Chryllyn Dums) was loud and clear inside his head, and he remembered what he had to do. Bryan was unresponsive and gray; Brandon checked for Bryan’s pulse and immediately started CPR. Brandon also knew he had to be the one to take control of the situation. With no cell phone reception at the barn, Brandon yelled for his uncle Matt Annala to rush to the house and call the ambulance. He also instructed his grandpa to start moving vehicles so that when the ambulance came, they would be able to get to Bryan.

Brandon continued with chest compressions and occasionally mouth-tomouth. For most of the time that Brandon was doing CPR, Bryan’s eyes were rolled back in his head and his lips and face were gray, but Brandon continued on. After 15 minutes, it seemed like Bryan might be coming back and started gasping for air, so Brandon turned him on his side but continued to compress his chest with one hand while his other hand was pressed firmly on Bryan’s back. Brandon then went back to full compressions until the ambulance arrived. Throughout all of it, he kept yelling at his uncle, “Stay with us, Bryan! Come on Bryan, you can do this; come back to us.” While Brandon worked on him, Bryan never regained consciousness or began breathing on his own.

Rollie’s house and barn are several miles out of town, so it took the ambulance a while to get there. When they arrived, there were only two EMTs with the ambulance, and one of them was new to the position. No paramedic was available at the time which means there was no one to give medications or start IVs. Brandon asked if anyone else was coming, and then told his grandpa to send out a page to the fire department asking for assistance. At this point, ambulance personnel hooked Bryan up to an automatic chest compression device and Brandon was finally relieved of doing CPR. From the time that Bryan dropped to the ground to the time that Brandon stopped chest compressions, over 30 minutes had passed. Pure adrenaline and a deep love for his uncle pushed Brandon to continue CPR when others may have given up or wouldn’t have had the physical ability to continue for so long. Even after help arrived, he continued to assist the ambulance crew with their attempts to revive Bryan.

Because multiple family members are part of the Rib Lake Volunteer Fire Department and heard the ambulance being paged and the request for assistance from the fire department, several of Bryan’s family recognized the address and description of the patient and rushed to the barn. Bryan’s sister Tiffany arrived and quickly called her friend Shelley Blomberg who worked as an ER nurse and asked Shelley to come to the barn. Bryan’s brother Jay and sister-inlaw Cindy, who has been a nurse for 33 years, rushed there as well. Cindy and Shelley were both able to assist the ambulance crew and everyone else did what they could to help. Bryan was in cardiac arrest, so at this point, he received the fourth shock to his heart to try to get it beating. It would take five shocks before his heart found a rhythm again and the look of death to leave his face.

Bryan’s wife Jenn had rushed to the barn and was able to climb into the ambulance as Bryan was being loaded. An off-duty paramedic who was coming to the scene in his own vehicle met the ambulance at the end of the driveway and joined the group. He was able to get permission for Bryan to head straight to Wausau for emergency medical attention. To everyone’s amazement and relief, Bryan was able to talk and recognize people on his way to the hospital.

Given the circumstances of the situation, Bryan’s chance of survival after he dropped to the ground was a mere 7%. If Brandon had not taken the invaluable CPR training, Bryan would not have survived. Bryan doesn’t remember anything from the second pig to the day he left the hospital three days later. But what he does know is that his nephew most certainly saved his life, and thanks to Brandon and the others that were able to help that day, Bryan beat the odds that were stacked against him. While Bryan may not remember the events of that October evening, his family certainly does. Rollie has said multiple times since that day, “I watched my son die and my grandson save his life. It was the most horrible and wonderful thing I’ve ever seen.”

After Bryan left in the ambulance, Brandon, Matt, Rollie, and a few of Bryan’s friends who had heard what happened finished butchering the pigs.

Bryan has since been fitted with a defibrillator, and other than some minor changes to his lifestyle, he is enjoying life and activities as usual. All of Bryan’s family and friends now see new importance in taking CPR classes and being prepared for a medical emergency.