Monday, February 22 2010 - 10:35 PM
My first successful CPR!
I’m writing this for me. Today I was going to yoga and was walking to get a towel when a friend of mine came running up to me wide-eyed and shaking.

Mary said John collapsed.

I looked in the racquetball court and saw John lying on his back with one person doing chest compressions. I went in and asked that the person kneeling give him air. They hesitated so I gave John mouth-to-mouth.

The gym personal arrived soon with the portable defibrillator and we hooked him too it. I turned it on and followed its simply instructions of get your hands off of him!

His lips were very blue and I could feel no pulse in his neck or wrist. The defibrillator told me to shock him so I cleared everyone and shocked John. He jerked from the jolt and his color started looking better.

John started to breath, I held his airway open, and a nurse was monitoring his femoral pulse. I could feel his brachial but not radial pulse. John gave me indications he was somewhat alert as we waited for the paramedics.

I drove Mary to AVHMC, where we called John’s kids and told them what was happening. We called Mary’s sister and a friend of hers Ann. About 40 minutes later two nurses came out of the ER and had the look of doom on their faces. I was talking to one of John’s kids and I told her what was happening in real time.

The nurses walked us outside and told us they had to shock John again because his heart stopped again. They then had taken him to the heart cath lab.

We knew John was breathing but we had no idea of his brain.

About 40 minutes later a very happy looking MD came out and told us to come view John’s heart cath procedure and showed us John’s three new stints.

The doctor told us we could say hi to John as they waited to take him to a bed.

It looks like John will have to take it easy but he’s not dead and should be discharged tomorrow.

Moral of the story is CPR classes saved John’s life. The Gym’s defibrillator was a godsend and I’m sure it is what saved John’s life. John is a very active man but his heart had lots of plaque buildup and some of the plaque ruptured making his body think it needed a blood clot to seal the hole it thought it had.

Diet seems to be more important than exercise in John’s case. Mary said John will have to lay off the hamburgers if he wants to exercise like he is a young man again. John isn’t overweight.

I wanted to share because it was my first successful CPR and John and Mary have been friends of mine for over 25 years. I still feel like I’m in shock.

Thanks to 24Hour Fitness for having well trained staff and a defibrillator. Thanks to the LA County Paramedics and Firemen for being so good at their job and so calm. Thanks to the ER staff at AVHMC for their quick reaction and proper diagnosis.

Thank God John is going to be ok!

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