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case, his bottom pump stopped pumping blood
and fibrillated, or just quivered. Dr. Havko said
without people around him performing good
CPR, Dr. Streiff would have been dead.
Pierre Bellicini, media relations and
marketing director for Lake Erie College of
Osteopathic Medicine, had a lifesaving role.
“I had had no idea how long he had been
“I don’t remember most of the things from
the night before the ride until several days
after, when I was completely warmed up
and moving around and out of an intensive
care unit,” Dr. Streiff says. “But from what
I’ve been told, it was like 50 First Dates and
I kept looking down at my fractured finger
and asking what happened. They would tell
always had. He continues an active lifestyle
with his family, including his two daughters
(ages 21 and 18) and his 16-year old son.
The Steelers and Penguin fan watches his
kids play sports, and he enjoys hunting and
snowmobiling.
“I’ve always thought that balance was
important — that you work hard when you’re
“ ...you work hard when you’re working and take time to relax and
play because no one knows when your time will be up.”
— Dr. John Streiff
on the ground or how long he had not been
breathing,” he says. “I wasn’t concerned
whether or not the chest compressions would
do any good, but there was no reason to stop.
I didn’t know what was going to happen, but
I couldn’t stop. You don’t stop. You have to
keep trying until medical personnel come
along,” says Bellicini.
It took more than 15 minutes for an
ambulance to arrive. By the time the ambulance
pulled into Saint Vincent, Dr. Streiff had
regained a pulse. But he was still in danger.
In order to prevent any possible brain
damage from the arrest, which is extremely
common, doctors put Streiff into hypothermia
protocol, or a deep freeze. This procedure uses
a special cooling blanket and cold intravenous
fluids to decrease the brain temperature to 32-
34° C as quickly as possible. Streiff was in this
state for 24-48 hours.
February2013
me, and then I would do it again every 10
minutes. For family and friends who had
never been through this, it was really hard
because they thought they lost me.”
After several days, however, Dr. Streiff
stopped asking and started remembering.
Several tests, an implantable cardioverter
defibrillator and six weeks later, Dr. Streiff
started rehab and riding a bike. Soon, he was
back to working part time.
“I couldn’t wait to get out and do things again,”
Dr. Streiff says. “It was hard for me to lay low for
so long because I didn’t have any heart damage. I
didn’t have any major surgery. I just had to have a
planted device in case that happens again.”
The implantable cardioverter defibrillator is
an electronic device that constantly monitors
the heart rhythm and delivers a shock of
energy if it detects an irregular beat.
Dr. Streiff says he lives his life the way he
working and take time to relax and play
because no one knows when your time will
be up,” Streiff says. “You have to be ready for
death no matter how young you are, so you
have to have your mental health and spiritual
health intact to go through something like
this and think nothing of it.”
A year after going into cardiac arrest at the
first Gears tour, Dr. Streiff participated in the
second Gears to Beers tour.
“My wife was terrified,” he says. “The
friends I ride with had to call her every 10 to
15 minutes. But I did it.”
Correll says it was very rewarding.
“It was exciting. We took our time and it
was nice, really, really nice. This gave him a
chance to end that ride the way he wanted to.
ed to be done,” Correll says. As for this year,
Dr. Streiff says he would like to complete the
ride again. LEL
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