Lewis Stokes is alive and headed for home in Southern California because of the state Department of Transportation Airport Division's installation of automatic external defibrillators.

Yesterday, Stokes went to Honolulu International Airport to thank the paramedics who saved his life after he suffered cardiac arrest on Dec. 5. Feeling better after his release from a local hospital, Stokes and his wife boarded a plane back to Garden Grove, Calif., yesterday afternoon.

"That was the first time in my years as a paramedic that I've gotten to see someone (who suffered a heart attack) walk out and jump on a plane and go home," said Andrew Chong, an airport paramedic.

Since the state put 100 automatic defibrillators in airports around the Islands a year ago, four of the five heart attack victims at state airports were saved by the equipment, said Jim Ireland, Honolulu International Airport medical director.

The 75-year-old Stokes had cardiac arrest in the Honolulu terminal. An off-duty nurse and another traveler immediately began CPR on him. Chong, who was at a nearby gate, grabbed the equipment and treated Stokes.

"He was full-fledge gone," Ireland said. "He was dead. I tell you no matter how many times you see the emotion from someone who comes back from the dead, it's not something you ever get used to."

Ireland said that defibrillators are placed about 90 seconds apart at the airport, in cases attached to the walls.

Every minute that goes by for someone experiencing a heart attack means the survivability drops by 10 percent, Ireland said.

The other people saved by the defibrillator included a 48-year-old state DOT employee who suffered cardiac arrest while working on Lagoon Drive. Co-workers performed CPR until the defibrillator arrived. The employee is back working at the airport, Ireland said.

The second patient was a 76-year-old visitor from Oregon who was at Kapalua, Maui, when he suffered cardiac arrest. Airport personnel used the defibrillator, performed CPR and restarted his heart.

The third patient was a 76-year-old visitor from New Jersey who suffered cardiac arrest in baggage claim. Two doctors at the scene used the airport automatic external defibrillator to revive him.