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They were in the right place at the right time. On Monday, South County Fire honored an off-duty firefighter and several other community members who leapt into action to save the life of a pickleball player at an Edmonds gym.
Fellow pickleball players at Edmonds Harbor Square Athletic Club noticed the man slump over and his face turn blue on Sept. 5. The man had no pulse and was not breathing, according to Tobey Stevenson, an off-duty Bellingham Fire captain who was exercising at the time.
Stevenson and another gym member, a cardiologist, performed CPR on the man. Other bystanders called 911 and retrieved an automated external defibrillator (AED) at the gym, which Stevenson and the cardiologist used to shock the man’s heart back into rhythm.
“I saw his eyes flicker and he started breathing. It was an amazing feeling,” Stevenson said. When South County firefighters arrived, the man was awake and talking. Firefighters rushed him to a hospital, and he was released days later.
Monday, South County Fire presented a Community Lifesaver Coin to the following community members for their actions:
Tobey Stevenson
Dr. Neil Siecke (not pictured)
Patty Hencz
David Varnau
Hannah Murphy
Greg Boland
In a cardiac arrest, bystander CPR during the critical minutes before firefighters arrive can double or triple a patient’s chance of survival. South County Fire offers a free ACT course to learn life-saving skills including CPR, how to use an AED, apply a tourniquet and more. ACT is a new approach to first aid that removes barriers and makes learning simple. About 35,000 people have already been trained to ACT.
Take the one-hour ACT course online or request an in-person class for your group at southsnofire.org/ACT.
This story should help increase membership at Harbor Square Athletic Club. Firefighters, an accessible AED and cardiologist in attendance! If ever I have a health emergency, that is where I would want to be. Edmonds is my kind of place!
Thank you all for saving a friends life! It is known this is one of the best places to have a heart attack. Everyone knew what to do.
Mr. Molly. it is the law in Washington State that every health club/gym must have AED’s on site and staff properly trained. So maybe not a marketing tool only for Harbor Square. In this case the law has succeeded in saving a life along with having experts on site. With their large group of elderly clients (me too) it would be interesting to know how many staff are fully trained and able to respond in a prompt time (Mr. Boland?) over the entire day that they are open?
Thanks, Mr Johnson. It’s always comforting to know regulations are followed. I wonder if Harbor Square requires a cardiologist and firefighter on staff at all times! All my feeble attempts at humor aside, it is great that the safety measures present in this case resulted in a positive outcome for the patron.