Mesa Legend - ARCHIVES - Vol. 39, Issue 7


Volume 39, Issue 7. Today is .

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Volume 39, Issue 7
December 4, 2001

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Emergency efforts, CPR fail to save MCC teacher

By David Dollins
Mesa Legend

An MCC English instructor had a heart attack in the Language Arts building Nov. 13.

Two Campus Safety officers administered CPR in an attempt to save her life. The instructor, Paulette Schlosser, died Nov. 16.

Schlosser, who began teaching at MCC full-time in 1972, was in her office when faculty members heard her call out for help.

Doyle Burke, chairman of the English Department and Joan Massey, another English professor, called campus safety and helped Schlosser until the officers arrived.

"She had a heart attack at about 12:30 p.m.," Burke said. "We called campus safety, we called 911, and several Campus Safety officers came and began to administer CPR."

Jesse LeRoy and Placido Garcia were the first officers to arrive on the scene. According to the two officers, Schlosser had no pulse and was not breathing.

"Once myself and officer Garcia started CPR," LeRoy, an EMT, (emergency medical technician), certified officer, said. "I turned my radio off because I was concentrating on making sure we got good CPR. We did it (CPR) together, one applied compressions and the other respiration."

For both officers, it was their first time giving CPR in an emergency situation.

"The officers were doing the compressions correctly," Lynn Bray, captain of Campus Safety, said. "So I didn’t interfere at all."

Other Campus Safety officers arrived at the scene to help.

"The other officers that came to the scene," Bray said, "quickly cleared the tables and stuff out of the hallways to make way for the ambulance stretcher. The other officers went out to the parking lots to direct the paramedics in. So when they did arrive on the scene, they could come in and find the office as quickly as possible. In my opinion these guys did an excellent job. There is nothing that I could possibly change that we did."

When the Mesa Fire Department arrived, they relieved LeRoy and Garcia.

"The paramedics came at about 12:38 p.m.," Burke said. "They defibrillated her heart and also administered CPR and took her to Desert Samaritan Hospital. When she arrived, she was breathing on her own but did not remain conscious. At the hospital they did a series of tests, an MRI and a CAT scan, however, the physicians said that the brain had swollen and there was no hope for recovery. So they took away medication and life support."

Burke reflected on what Schlosser meant to the MCC English Department.

"She was a favorite in this department," Burke said. "She had great warmth, she had great humor. She was very loving toward other people. She was supportive of other faculty and her students liked her. She had such a winning personality."

Schlosser taught four English classes, Fundamentals of Writing, First Year Composition, Introduction to Literature and Children’s Literature.

Burke said that these classes have been re-assigned for the rest of this semester to full-time and part-time faculty.

"The faculty assigned to these classes," Burke said, "are very sensitive to the students and they’re going to try and help the students complete the semester."