After experiencing cardiac arrest while skiing a black diamond run on Mount Baker in February, Ferndale resident and lifelong skier Bill Bishop, 63, is alive today thanks to a team of bystanders and first responders who quickly came to his aid.
On Tuesday, March 28, Bishop met the people who saved his life — a “rare” experience, said Whatcom County EMS Manager Mike Hilley.
Dozens of men and women filled the room of a Whatcom Fire District 4 station, each recalling the part they played in Bishop’s rescue. More than 20 people were involved in the operation, from bystanders to the ski resort’s aid room nurses.
After Bishop collapsed, a passing snowboarder noticed him and began administering CPR. Three off-duty nurses who happened to be on the slopes that day came to his aid and performed CPR for 15 minutes until Mount Baker Ski Patrol arrived on the scene and administered an automated external defibrillator (AED). From there, Bishop was taken on a toboggan down the mountain to the medical aid room.
“That must have been a fun ride for me down,” Bishop said to the crowd, to uproarious laughter.
Bishop was then airlifted to St. Joseph’s Hospital. The entire event, from his collapse to his arrival at the hospital, lasted more than three hours, Hilley said.
Bishop has made a full recovery since the incident and attended the event with his family.
Dr. Marvin Wayne, Whatcom County EMS director, called Bishop’s survival story miraculous. The number of people Wayne knows of who have survived a mountainside cardiac arrest in Washington state is “somewhere between zero and one,” he said.
“There were so many links in the chain, and everything had to work just right, in order for him to make it because he was in such an extreme environment,” said Dr. Ralph Weiche, the hospital’s attending emergency physician and supervising physician for the ski area’s aid room. “It just is so satisfying to see everybody know exactly what to do, and [do] exactly what they needed to do without hesitation.”
Weiche emphasized not only the amount of training and preparation by the ski resort’s first responders that made Bishop’s rescue possible, but also the willingness of bystanders to step in.
“The community that we live in is one that takes care of its own,” Weiche said. “[Bishop] wouldn’t be here today if not for those people.”
Tuesday’s event ended in an award ceremony, honoring those who stepped forward and helped save Bishop’s life that day.
“All these people, all these years, have been working behind the scenes as I’m skiing up there carefree,” Bishop said. “They all got my back, and I didn’t even know it.”
