From Naperville Sun columnist Tim West:
Fitness Center employees honored for saving a life
August 19, 2009
Jack Hummel was in the right place.
The 59-year-old Lisle resident with a history of cardiac problems was doing aerobic exercises at the Edward Fitness Center in Naperville when he fell ill.
When a service desk worker (Leslie Sorensen) saw him sitting by the water cooler she asked if he was all right. His response was "No, call 911."
Fitness center staff rushed to assist, an AED (automatic external defibrillator) and first-aid kit were taken to him, and 911 was dialed.
As Hummel's pulse and blood pressure were being taken, he began to twitch and perspire, then he vomited and lost consciousness.
His pulse had stopped, so CPR was begun and the AED was put into use.
Paramedics arrived and rushed him across the street to Edward Hospital's Emergency Department where he was taken to the Cardiac Catheterization Lab and ultimately had an ICD (an implantable device that is both a pacemaker and a defibrillator) surgically installed in his chest.
Ironically, at the urging of his cardiologist he had planned to have the device installed in the near future -- the timing just got moved up a bit.
Hummel was very lucky. If he'd had his attack in a place where an AED was not present and there weren't trained personnel the outcome may well have been tragically different.
Tuesday morning, the three fitness center employees -- Tracy Trimble, Laura LaRue, and Eric Gustafson -- were given the hospital's "Good Catch" award in a ceremony before about a hundred of their colleagues and Hummel and his wife, Charlene, were present as surprise guests for the award ceremony.
The Good Catch program honors the hospital's "unspoken heroes" who are generally employees who catch potential errors affecting patients and stop them before they occur.
No error was involved in this, but fast action by staff members at the fitness center in all probability saved the life of one of their customers and the honor they received was richly deserved.
During the awards ceremony a grateful Hummel was hugged by his rescuers.
The event at the fitness center underscores the importance of having an AED handy. Eminent cardiologists such as Dr. Vince Bufalino of Midwest Heart Specialists in Naperville have been urging their widespread use for a long time now. O'Hare Airport now has them and has cut sharply its mortality rate from heart attacks at the airport.
An AED only costs about $1,300 and even in these troubled economic times businesses and public facilities that don't have them should.
And it also helps to have people around who are quick thinking and acting and eminently capable of making that all important good catch, the kind that gave Jack Hummel a second time at bat.
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