Jennifer Trombly of St. Petersburg had just walked out of a Sweetbay Supermarket at about 6 p.m. when she heard a commotion and saw a man lying on the ground outside the store.
Jennifer Trombly the Saviour
Trombly called 911. She asked three men who were helping the victim if he was breathing or had a pulse. They said, “No.” She told the men to give the man two breaths to give him some oxygen.
Trombly, whose 9-year-old son has a condition that can cause him to go into a life-threatening arrhythmia, raced to her car and got her personal automated external defibrillator, or AED.
As she tried to get the defibrillator out of a backpack, she instructed the men to give 30 chest compressions and continue mouth-to-mouth.
Another man lifted the victim’s shirt. She put the tabs on his chest to analyze if a shock was needed. When the shock was advised, they told everyone to clear, and Trombly shocked him.
The men continued CPR and the victim, who had a name tag that identified him as Charlie, started to take irregular breaths.
Shortly afterward, St. Petersburg firefighters and paramedics arrived at the store, 6095 9 Ave. N, to find that Trombly had coordinated the rescue effort.
Trombly’s actions helped save the man’s life, said Lt. Joel Granata of St. Petersburg Fire & Rescue.
“She jump-started his heart with that,” Granata said.
Paramedics transported the man, whose name wasn’t released, to Bayfront Medical Center in serious condition.
“I don’t look at myself as a hero,” Trombly said Tuesday night. “All I did was use a tool I had and push a button.”
“I don’t feel like I did anything extra,” she said. “I think the guys who did the CPR are the real heroes. They kept him going until I could give him the shock.”
Trombly, a third grade teacher at Northwest Elementary, has had the AED for two years.
She said her family was trained on the machine when her son was diagnosed with having an irregular heartbeat.
“You never know when you’re going to use it,” she said.
“It is nice to know that people will still do good even if it’s a complete stranger,” Trombly said. “And that means a lot.”
