Ebbighausen used CPR skills to save a life

By Tom Hintgen (Contact) | The Daily Journal

Published 12:00 p.m., December 21, 2009

Late Tuesday afternoon, Oct. 6, Corporal Vaughn Ebbighausen of the Minnesota State Patrol was performing duties near Elizabeth when he was dispatched to assist a man suffering a heart attack near the intersection of Interstate 94 and Highways 59 and 52, north of Fergus Falls. His previous training, quick action and clear thinking saved the man’s life.

“I was fortunate to be close by, and got to the scene in about five minutes,” said Ebbighausen.

When Ebbighausen arrived, Dennis DelaBarre, 59, of Bismarck, N.D., had been pulled from the vehicle by his wife, Nadine, an ICU nurse who had started CPR.

“I could tell that the victim was in full cardiac arrest,” said Ebbighausen, part of the State Patrol Detroit Lakes District 2900 who works in the Fergus Falls 2930 station. “I used a AED defibrillator to bring the victim back to a regular heartbeat.”

Another state trooper, Dave Keenan of Moorhead, also stopped at the scene just after Ebbighausen arrived. Kennan was on his way home, driving along Interstate 94, after being in the Twin Cities. Shortly thereafter, three members of the Ringdahl Ambulance crew arrived.

DelaBarre was taken to Lake Region Hospital, Fergus Falls, and later was transported to Fargo Innovis Hospital where two stents were inserted during heart surgery. In the balloon angioplasty/stent procedure, the opening of narrow or blocked blood vessels using a balloon may include placement of a stent.

He was in the Fargo hospital for 10 days and spent another five days as a patient at St. Alexius Hospital in Bismarck where DelaBarre works as a pharmacist and where his wife, Nadine, works as a nurse in ICU.

“I was very impressed with the initial care that Dennis receive at Lake Region Hospital in Fergus Falls,” said Nadine DelaBarre. “Dennis is here with us, today, because of the efforts of Corporal Ebbighausen, other first responders and the hospital personnel in Fergus Falls and elsewhere.”

She was additionally impressed with the State Patrol officers who drove her vehicle from the intersection north of town to Lake Region Hospital. Later, they offered to drive the family car to Fargo where Dennis DelaBarre was a patient at Innovis.

“They finally asked me if there was anything else they could do for me,” said Nadine, “and all I could do was to give them my sincere and heartfelt thanks.”

In a letter of commendation from Capt. Bruce Hentges, State Patrol District Commander in Detroit Lakes, the captain wrote that Ebbighausen “assessed the situation on Oct. 6, 2009, and immediately began to render aid, performing CPR and attaching the AED defibrillator to monitor the man’s condition.”

Using the scissors from his first aid kit, Hentges noted that Ebbighausen shaved an area on the chest of the victim and was successful in deploying a shock which brought the man’s heart back into rhythm.

“Your quick action and clear thinking saved the life of the victim,” said Hentges.

Ebbighausen is a 1979 graduate of Fergus Falls High School who has been with the State Highway Patrol for 19 years. He lives north of Fergus Falls.

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