Lifesavers Used ‘Textbook’ CPR: Planet Fitness Member, Employee Lauded for Keeping Heart Attack Victim Alive
By SUE SCHEIBLE
The Patriot Ledger
In front, Paul Basile of Planet Fitness and Linda Natale, a patron, helped save a man’s life until Fallon paramedics Mark Durling, center, and Kevin Robischeau arrived. (GREG DERR/The Patriot Ledger)
A man who had a heart attack Thursday morning while exercising at the Planet Fitness health club on Middle Street is in good condition today thanks to a nurse who was working out at the same time, a retired firefighter who works at the club and paramedics.
‘‘It was a textbook case of CPR done correctly,'' said Mark Durling, one of two Fallon Ambulance Service paramedics who took the call. ‘‘I've been a paramedic for five years and this is my first save. It was pretty wonderful. He was a young guy, he was not breathing and had no pulse, everything was done correctly before we got there and we were able to shock him back.''
Durling, who is also a Hingham firefighter and paramedic, said that when he arrived the man did not have a pulse. He said people generally can go about six minutes without breathing or a pulse, and still survive.
The lucky sequence of events amounted to what the American Heart Association calls ‘‘the chain of survival.''
The club employee who rushed to the victim's side when other club members began screaming for help was Paul Basile, 52, of Weymouth, a retired Braintree firefighter who knew CPR and had just been trained to use a defibrillator. The club had only gotten the life-saving device a month or so ago, and required the employees to be trained on it.
One of the club members who was working out nearby when the man collapsed about 7:45 a.m. is a registered nurse at South Shore Hospital.
Linda Natale, 49, of Hanover, said she normally wouldn't have been there at that hour, but it was her day off and she was about to head to the Cape for the weekend with her family. Natale delayed her departure for the Cape to follow the victim to the hospital and see how he was doing yesterday.
The paramedics were just around the corner when the 911 call came in just before 8 a.m. They are on an ambulance that stays in Weymouth.
‘‘The American Heart Association recommends that in emergencies like this, bystanders start CPR early and call 911,'' said Durling, 35, of Carver. The other paramedic was Kevin Robischeau, 39, of Manchester, N.H.
‘‘The two bystanders started the CPR and then someone called 911 and those two folks did a fantastic job. They tried to use the defibrillator, which wouldn't shock him because his heart was not in the correct rhythm,'' Durling said. ‘‘We got there and shocked him back into a sinus (normal heart) rhythm and he immediately started to breathe and had a pulse. By the time we got him to the hospital, he was trying to get up off the bed.''
Basile, a Braintree firefighter for 32 years who retired as a deputy chief, works at the fitness club on the desk and opens the club every morning. Basile said he saw many emergencies in his years on the fire department and he didn't think this victim would survive when events first unfolded.
‘‘His color was awful, he was gray and he looked like he was gone,'' Basile said. ‘‘No way in the world did I think we'd get him back. He stopped breathing and it looked like we lost him. Once we started CPR, his color got better, but then they got there and they took right over and did a great job. They got him hooked up to their defibrillator and they shocked him.''
Basile had applied the club defibrillator when he and Natale started CPR but the automatic device instructed him to do chest compressions instead because the victim's heart rhythm was not reading as shockable at that point. The machines prompt users on whether to start CPR or to try to apply a shock.
He said the American Heart Association is encouraging fitness clubs, schools, airports and other community centers to acquire defibrillators and to train people in how to use them.
Copyright 2007 The Patriot Ledger
Photographer: Greg Derr/The Patriot Ledger
Transmitted Friday, August 31, 2007
For more information on how a Fallon AED Program can benefit your community, please call us at 1-888-FALLON5.
Fallon's AED Program follows the American Heart Association's curriculum for the Heartsaver and will include instruction, demonstrations and a written evaluation for participants. The training programs include instruction on the use of lifesaving automatic external defibrillators (AED). The use of AEDs is a vital link in the Chain of Survival. This training is an important first step of a preventive medical plan.
