Lorain worker responds to medical emergency during home repair visit

LORAIN — A Lorain worker unexpectedly helped a resident who had a medical emergency last week. Tracy Ellan, housing rehab administrator with Lorain's Building, Housing and Planning department, had just finished a visit to a south side home on Aug. 13 to discuss federally funded renovations there when his first aid skills were put to the test. The homeowner, Linda Karl, 74, was outside in the backyard of her East 32nd Street home when her blood pressure dropped and she collapsed. Her neighbor yelled for Ellan's help. "I told (my neighbor) I feel dizzy and the next thing, I wake up and Tracy's got my head back for CPR," Karl said. "… When I came to, I didn't even realize it was Tracy." It may have been a perspective few have seen of the housing administrator, she joked. Ellan filled in the blanks: When he came around the corner to answer the neighbor's call, Karl was slumped against a car parked in the alleyway behind her home. She then collapsed. "I ran over there, I rolled her on her back and I was hollering at her trying to get her to respond to me — she was just unresponsive," Ellan said. "I felt her neck and her neck was cold and she had a faint breath." He told the contractor he had been talking to at the front of the home to call 911 and kept trying to get Karl to respond, he said. He kept tapping her face and calling her name, unsure if she was having a stroke. After a few tense minutes went by, Ellan caught sight of movement behind Karl's eyelids, he said. When she finally came to, Ellan said she did not recognize him — despite knowing him for more than two years. He stayed seated with her until paramedics arrived. It took some time for her to fully regain consciousness, she said. Karl said when paramedics checked her blood pressure, it dropped 40 points when she stood up: the suspected cause of her lost consciousness. She was also severely dehydrated and had severe weight loss due to other chronic health issues, including a neuroendocrine-secreting tumor. Paramedics got her back into her home and her grandson stayed with her. Ellan's previous job required him to be first aid certified every year, he said, but he let the certification lapse when he came to work for the city. The episode was something he never expected to encounter at a simple home rehab consultation, but credited his prior training and instinct for his actions last week — and hoped others would do the same in the situation. Contact Carissa Woytach at (440) 329-7245 or cwoytach@chroniclet.com.