Wade Cassidy

A phone call from the skies eased Thea Cassidy’s worst fears.

When she last saw her husband, Wade, he had just been shocked back to life by STARS flight nurse Crystal Lybeck before being wheeled into a helicopter bound for a city hospital. Crystal phoned Thea en route and put Wade on the line. “That was probably the best sound ever, just hearing him say hi,” Thea said.

REMOTE RESCUE

It was the September long weekend of 2018, and Wade was at his cottage in Chitek Lake, Sask., pulling in his boat dock for the season, when searing chest pain knocked him down.
“The last thing you think about at age 42 is a massive heart attack,” he said, “let alone the location of where it happened.” He was 232 km from the nearest major hospital in Saskatoon. “I knew the timelines. I didn’t have hours, I had minutes.”

His cousin called 911. Local ground crews came to his aid, and a doctor in the community urged a STARS response since a road trip would take two and a half hours.

“With Wade’s condition, we did not have that time,” said STARS flight paramedic Glen Pilon. “We needed faster transport to hospital.” The STARS helicopter launched from Saskatoon, and a ground ambulance carrying Wade rushed toward it. They met on the roadside at an emergency services parking lot.

“I was doing everything I could to just keep breathing,” said Wade. “When we got to that rendezvous site and I heard that helicopter, a sense of relief came over me.”

First responders stand behind an ambulance while a STARS air ambulance lands at the scene of Wade's incident.

First responders wait and watch as the STARS AW139 air ambulance lands near the scene of Wade's incident.

STARS very important patient Wade Cassidy sits on his front step at home a week after his heart attack.

Wade Cassidy at home, a week after his heart attack.

The Cassidy family pose with the STARS crew during their first visit with the STARS crew that came to Wade's care. Photographed at the STARS base with the AW139 air ambulance that took Wade to hospital.

The Cassidy family meets the STARS crew that provided critical care and flew him to hospital following his heart attack.

Wade and Thea Cassidy pose on either side of STARS Captain pilot Alex Parra, in front of a STARS AW139 air ambulance.

Wade and Thea Cassidy pose for a photo with STARS Captain pilot Alex Parra. Wade has graciously provided his time to tell his story to help support other patients needing the critical care and transport that STARS provides.

The Cassidy family at their son's first communion.

The Cassidy family poses at son Grayson's first communion.

Thea and Wade Cassidy lean against a railing at their cabin on the lake where Wade experienced his heart attack.

Thea and Wade Cassidy at their cabin at the lake.

But the worst was yet to come.

When Glen and Crystal stepped into the ground ambulance to assess Wade, he was alert and talking. Moments later, he was not. “I noticed his eyes started to roll back in his head and he started to shake,” said Glen. “We both looked at the monitor, and he was in ventricular fibrillation.”

Wade’s heart wasn’t beating as it should, so the STARS air medical crew had to act quickly. “I didn’t really understand what was happening,” said Wade, “It was a very euphoric feeling. What I didn’t know was that as your brain shuts down and loses blood — sight, hearing, consciousness — all those things fade away when your heart stops. All I could see was my wife and children standing there smiling. And it was the most calming feeling I’ve ever had.”

But in reality, he was dying.

“The type of cardiac arrest he was in required us to shock him,” said Crystal, who quickly deployed a defibrillator.

“After I shocked Wade, we had return of circulation waves. He started to come to, and I remember saying, ‘Welcome back, Wade.’”

GOING ABOVE AND BEYOND

While Wade was moved from the ground ambulance to the STARS helicopter, Thea asked Crystal, Can you just tell him that I love him? “She was so great,” Thea recalled. “She said, ‘Absolutely, I will.’”

Crystal even went a step further. She had taken the phone number of the driver who would take Thea to the hospital. While providing care in the air, she knew Wade was alert enough to talk to Thea, so she called.

“It was scary,” said Thea. “I didn’t know what to expect on the other end, but it was Crystal’s voice saying, ‘Do you want to speak to Wade?’ That phone call made it possible for me to breathe again.”

Wade made it to a cardiac catheterization lab at Saskatoon’s Royal University Hospital and has since fully recovered. Now, when he’s not at the hockey rink with his two teenage boys or growing his career as a salesperson in powersports vehicles, Wade continues to spend time at the cabin with his family whenever possible.

“We come up here as often as we can,” he said, sitting on the shoreline where his heart attack occurred. “And having a service like STARS — I will forever be indebted to them. If it wasn’t for STARS, I wouldn’t be back here today telling the story.”

The Cassidy family has become staunch supporters of STARS, participating in numerous fundraising and awareness activities.

“Not only do I owe my life to STARS, I owe it to the people who support STARS,” said Wade. “It is so precious to our province, to Western Canada.”