First Aid Corps

I am a manager at ClubSport Fremont. We are a high-end fitness resort located just off I-880. We have about 6,000 members and 230 employees. On March 5, for about 30 minutes, our management team was in crisis mode because of a fallen member.

A code 50 was called to a tennis court for a dizzy member.

As I arrived on the scene, the member was laying on the bench and looked disoriented. I told another employee to call 911.

Just as we had got a towel for his head, he started to grab his chest, started moaning, turning purple and his legs and arms seemed to lock up. He was having a heart attack.

I yelled to another employee to run and grab the AED (Automated External Defibrillator) unit, while another employee handed me the CPR mask. I pulled off his shirt as another manager arrived.

The member’s eyes had rolled back in his head and he was motionless. I was very scared.

One employee began chest compressions while I alternated with CPR breathing.

The AED unit arrived and we set it up to use. The system said “shock advised,” and “step away from the patient.” Another employee pressed the button and we shocked the member. His chest literally lifted off the ground and his heart started beating again, but his breathing was shallow and soon disappeared.

We started compressions and CPR breathing again. After a few minutes that seemed like an eternity, the AED unit said “shock advised” again.

Another manager and I looked at each other and did what the AED said to do — we shocked him again. His body again lifted off the bench and his heart started beating. Once again, though, his breathing fell to nothing.

We started compressions and breathing again. I thought our member and friend was going to die right there on that bench.

The most amazing part was every time we shocked him and his heart started beating again and his breathing came back, the 10 or so tennis members started yelling to him, “Don’t give up!” “C’mon J, you can do it!” His wife, who had arrived on the scene, yelled to him “Don’t leave me, J! Don’t leave me!” It was almost like he heard them.

We started CPR yet again, and just as I felt like I was running out of breath, I looked up and saw walking toward us, America’s finest — the Fremont Fire Department.

We all moved out of the way and let them take over. They stabilized the member and later told us that had we not taken action, the member surely would have died on the tennis court.

He was taken to Washington Hospital and is going to be fine.

Self account by Mr Tony Young of Fremont. He has been employed by Leisure Sports, Inc., at ClubSport Fremont. He has been a manager at the Fremont property for 14 years.

We will be reporting on lives saved around the world since our first documented life saved here in Singapore.Saturday, just after noon, police were called to a health club located on Progress Drive to assist “a fall victim who was not breathing.” “He was not breathing, and he did not have a pulse,” Salvatore said, as he recounted the dramatic incident.

However, Daniel Petrullis, an off-duty Middletown police officer, and Nicholas Demico, an off-duty juvenile facility guard, were working feverishly to administer CPR to the stricken man. McCarter, a three-year veteran of the force, grabbed the automatic external defibrillator from his cruiser, set up the device and administered one shock to the victim in an effort to re-start the man’s heart.

As a result of the shock, Petrullis, Demico and McCarter “were able to detect a faint pulse,” Salvatore said.

At this point, the three men were joined by Cromwell emergency medical technicians and, in short order, by Middlesex Hospital paramedics. Together, they helped load the victim into a waiting ambulance, where the EMTs and paramedics continued to work to stabilize the man’s tenuous condition. Once they felt they had done so, they raced to Middlesex Hospital, police said.

Salvatore praised McCarter for his coolness in administering the vital shock to the stricken man, and commended him “for a job well-done.”