Norm Skorge returned Sunday to the Oahu Club to thank Emergency Medical Services and other good Samaritans from saving him from a cardiac arrest.
Skorge’s reunion kicked off the 47th Annual National Emergency Medical Services Week, which began Sunday and runs through Saturday. Honolulu Hale was illuminated Sunday in the EMS colors of orange, white and blue to mark the week.
This year’s EMS Week theme is “Rising to the Challenge” — something Skorge said he is thankful that his lifesaving colleagues do every day. Ironically, Skorge, 54, is a first responder and Ocean Safety dispatcher.
“I know the statistics on what I went through are not favorable, and so for me to be here in is as good a shape as I am is incredible,” said an emotional Skorge, who has made a full recovery and is training for competitive swimming events.
He also has returned to swimming in the Oahu Club’s Lane 2, where the
Jan. 11 trauma occurred. He said he avoided swimming in Lane 2 at first but has since made it his lane of choice.
“That lane doesn’t own me. Like it’s me kind of showing it what’s up,” Skorge said. “I got a second lease on life, and I’m going to take advantage of it.”
His wife, Joy Skorge, is incredibly grateful, too. She said the Oahu Club members and first responders, who work with her husband, saved his life with their rapid response and professionalism.
“(Norm) does the dispatch, which means he speaks to all the different agencies, and he’s always very proud of the job that each of these agencies do on their own and how they can come together,” she said. “It’s amazing to see it in action. When it all works together, you are just grateful that it exists.”
If the team had not been available, Skorge said that her husband “definitely wouldn’t be here.”
The day of the emergency, paramedic Mitch Kam and emergency medical technician Tina Craveiro arrived
at the Hawaii Kai facility just three minutes after club member Joe Lileikes had pulled the lifeless 200-pound Norm Skorge from the pool. Lileikes and other poolgoers rotated performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation on Skorge.
Kam, who was recognized Sunday as an “EMS Week” hero, recalls, “Everything fell into place that day. There were people here
at the poolside who were able to pull him out and started CPR and rescue efforts.
“They were
a huge part of where Norm is today,” he said. “My part in this call was small. I introduced electricity to his heart, and after that he came around.”
EMS, with support from the
Honolulu Fire Department, took Skorge to Straub Medical Center. During a stent surgery, doctors discovered that Skorge had a 90% blockage in a major artery in his heart.
Honolulu Emergency Services Department spokesperson Shayne Enright said Skorge is one of
a million residents and millions of visitors annually that the city’s 276 paramedics and emergency medical technicians are responsible to treat. In 2021, Honolulu EMS responded to more than 124,000 calls to the 911 emergency line, delivering advanced lifesaving medical treatment and transporting nearly 55,000 patients to local emergency rooms, Enright said.
The numbers have a deeply personal meaning for Norm Skorge and his family, including his 18-year-old daughter, Katherine, who grew up surrounded by EMS and took junior lifeguard training.
“The main takeaway is just that what they do is really important,” Katherine Skorge said. “Response time is
critical.”
She said EMS needs enough funding so that it can “run all of the services that are so essential to everyone on the island.”
Honolulu Emergency Services Director Dr. Jim Ireland said EMS has 21 ambulances, but more are needed to keep up with demand.
“Historically, EMS runs over 100,000 calls a year on Oahu, and that number is increasing. Now that we are moving out of the pandemic phase, people are recreating more. The tourists have come back,” Ireland said. “Because of that, we are seeing more rescues in the ocean, hiking injuries, traffic accidents. We are also seeing people who fall or unfortunately have strokes, heart attacks, childbirth at home — all the other calls that EMS goes on are increasing.”
Ireland estimates that the city will need to add one additional 24-hour ambulance a year for the next five years to meet increasing call volume.
