Yesterday at 8:14 PM Brandon and Tyler Giberson were recently recognized by the American Heart Association for their volunteer work and research on cardiac arrest at the Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Both brothers say they plan to return to central Maine one day to practice medicine.

By Rachel Ohm rohm@centralmaine.com Staff Writer

SKOWHEGAN Doctors at Redington-Fairview General Hospital like to joke that they have already put Brandon Giberson on the work schedule for the year 2017, even though Giberson is only in his second year of medical school.

Staff photo by Michael G. Seamans Brandon Giberson, 26, was recently recognized by the American Heart Association for research on cardiac arrest. Giberson is currently a medical student at the University of New England and is completing his residency at Redington-Fairview General Hospital in Skowhegan.

Hes been here since he was a kid. Its been the ultimate evolution of someone starting as a high school volunteer and now being able to take concepts he has learned and apply them in the same setting, said John Comis, director of the emergency department at the hospital, where Giberson is working on a required residency for medical school.

A student at the University of New England in Biddeford, Giberson and his twin brother, Tyler, recently were recognized by the American Heart Association for their volunteer work and research on cardiac arrest alongside Dr. Michael Donnino at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center in Boston. Both brothers say they plan to return to central Maine one day to practice medicine.

Its kind of funny looking back at the progression from my days as a volunteer, when my chief duty was changing linens and bringing patients in to X-ray, to working in the back of the ambulance and bringing patients in. Its so neat to be at the level where I can critically think and interact with patients almost as a member of the clinical staff, said Brandon Giberson, who said he has always called Redington-Fairview home.

Both brothers, originally from Bingham, worked for the hospitals ambulance service before moving to Boston. Tyler Giberson, who is in his first year at the Geisel School of Medicine at Dartmouth College, said that unlike his brother, he wasnt sure he wanted to be a doctor even though he always enjoyed working on the ambulance. After college, he received an offer of an engineering job at the construction company Cianbro but turned it down at the last minute to move to Boston, where he took the necessary classes to apply to medical school and worked full time with his brother at Beth Israel.

The American Heart Association sets guidelines on best practices hospitals should follow when someones heart has stopped, Brandon Giberson said. At Beth Israel, the brothers worked with Harvard professor Donnino, who worked on writing the most current guidelines and who Brandon Giberson said has helped launch his research career.

When the heart stops, the body starts showing signs of being cut off from oxygen, he said. Without the heart pumping effectively, cells start to die, causing signs that the brain has suffered. Those signs can include liver, kidney and lung failure or loss of consciousness, Giberson said.

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Bingham brothers in medical school recognized for research, volunteering