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AUBURN, New York (The Citizen) — His heart may have failed him, but his foresight and community’s faith restored him.
Dr. Michael Tamul, 77, has attended Mass every Saturday at Sacred Heart Church in Owasco for decades.
The former anesthesiologist had his first heart attack there in 2007. One moment, he was listening to the opening hymn, he told The Citizen. The next, he was in a bed at Auburn Community Hospital.
There, Tamul was diagnosed with atherosclerosis. It caused his left anterior artery to be sloped, leading plaque to build up and restrict blood flow.
He was transported to St. Joseph’s Health Hospital in Syracuse, where a stent was placed to keep the vessel open.
After the heart attack, the now-retired Sister Chris Treichel at the church told him it would be a good idea to add an automated external defibrillator to shock someone in the event of a heart attack.
After collecting funding, Tamul and his friend and colleague Dr. Donald Delahanty donated an AED to Sacred Heart.
That very device saved his life Aug. 15.
‘The right place at the right time’
Longtime nurse Ann Brown is rarely late to church. Her brother Mark LoCastro serves at their parish of Sacred Heart, and Brown, her children and daughter-in-law have a regular spot in the front left pew.
On Aug. 15, however, they were late. Brown was able to find a spot in the back.
She was close to Tamul, who had ridden his bike to church as he always does. On the trip, he felt minor pain and tension in his chest, but didn’t think much of it.
Right as she sat down, Brown said, she heard a sound — it was Tamul falling to the ground.
With agility and focus perfected over decades of work as an ER nurse, Brown rushed to Tamul and checked his pulse. There wasn’t one.
She told The Citizen she heard an all-too-familiar “death rattle,” a clogging of the throat signifying one is no longer able to clear their airway and is close to dying.
Her brother said there was an AED, and she demanded it. Tamul was quickly lugged to a back room, where Brown and about 10 others traded shifts performing CPR until using the defibrillator.
She shocked him once. Nothing happened. The Cayuga County Sheriff’s Office, Auburn City Ambulance and Owasco Fire Department were already on the way, the call being “dead on arrival.”
She shocked him again. His heartbeat returned.
The room erupted in joyful surprise as Tamul slowly opened his eyes, Brown said. Minutes earlier, she had held his limp body in her lap and raised her hand up to the heavens in prayer.
As the group opened the doors to the main church space, they found the rest of the parish bowing their heads in silent prayer.
“It’s not just me who saved him,” Brown said. “It was a team effort.”
If her family hadn’t been late to church, they would’ve sat in their usual spot up front, she said. If she hadn’t sat that close to Tamul, she wouldn’t have gotten to him as quickly as she did.
“I was in the right place at the right time,” she said. “It was an act of God.”
‘Like deja vu.’
Tamul was transported to Auburn Community Hospital and had his stent replaced.
His wife, Joan, and son Christopher were there with him, and their other two children, Elizabeth and Kevin, came from their homes in Virginia to see him.
While he recovered at home, the family recognized the odd coincidence of his two heart attacks occurring in the same place, during the same service, 19 years apart.
But this time, there was an AED available — thanks to him.
“The whole thing is like deja vu,” he said with a laugh. “When that AED went to the church, it was future Mike talking to old Mike, saying, ‘Hey, you might need this again.’”
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