Community Corner
Rescuers Who Saved Men at 24-Hour Fitness Honored by Seattle Red Cross
The Seattle Red Cross honored employees and a gym member of 24-Hour Fitness on Bel-Red Road for saving two clients who had heart attacks in separate incidents two days in a row.
24 Hour Fitness employees Thomas Anderson, Kristena Coleman, John Dozier, Nick Powers and Ashley Reynolds and Overlake Hospital Medical Center cardiologist David Nelson were honored recently by the Seattle chapter of the American Red Cross with the Workplace Rescue Award for providing life-saving CPR and AED -- which was needed at the gym two days in a row.
Their actions are credited with saving 24-Hour Fitness clients Dave Mann and Steve Woody, who suffered heart attacks last year on consecutive days. The staff used both chest compressions and an automatic external defibrillator equipped at the gym to help both men until medical aid arrived.
They were honored March 26 at the 2013 King County Heroes Breakfast, the 17th annual fundraising and awards ceremony that honors people in the community "whose extraordinary acts of courage or kindness make them a hero," according to the American Red Cross Serving King & Kitsap Counties.
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The incident was covered last year in Bellevue Patch.
On Oct. 31, Mann, 79, was getting ready to play racquetball at the club with two other friends when he collapsed. Staff members sounded the alarm and called for medics. Anderson, a personal trainer, began chest compressions and Powers applied the defibrillator on Mann, a retired Seattle Rainiers baseball player.
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The very next day, Woody, 66, collapsed during a Zumba class. Dr. David Nelson happened to be working out when the instructors called the front desk for help.
Nelson performed CPR on Woody, a retired general manager at Bellevue’s Jaguar Land Rover dealership. Nelson and a Bellevue police officer who arrived were able to provide three shocks with the very same AED used on Mann the previous day.
Several days later, Nelson happened to be the heart surgeon who operated on Woody's heart.
Both men recovered and are working out once again at 24-Hour Fitness.
Previous coverage:
"I'm the Luckiest Person in the World": Two Men Saved by Defibrillator at 24-Hour Fitness
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