One of those reality check events

So sorry about this horrific experience.  Sounds like this guy was gone before you all got involved.  But it's a good point to stay current on your CPR certification!  Thanks for the reminder.

Saw your post on FB.  Nuts.  Definitely gets you thinking when involved with something like that. 

I feel like I watch enough tv to be CPR certified but I am one that panics.  I know you are suppose to do chess compressions to the beat of the song "stayin alive".   When Kasey split her forehead open I was yelling call 911 and Sean was so calm and walked over got  towel, held it against her head then looked at it and said I think it needs stitches.  Good job staying calm Clark and helping out!!

yikes that would give me bad dreams.  when i witnessed the car wreck in san jose, one guy had his forehead split open and i couldn't get that image out of my head for days.

FV just approved a  24 hour Anytime Fitness gym which has no night personnel to monitor the facilities and members. I had second thoughts voting for it (it required a CUP, which means it had to go through the planning commission) and now I really feel that it shouldn't have been allowed. Too many people have heart attacks and accidents while exercising, and a CPR qualified person should always be on site. This is the second case I've heard of where a person nearly died from exercising in a gym--so sad. I hope he recovers and takes it easy for awhile. A fast walk and maybe a little jog might be the best way to start a good regimen for him. Many doctors do not recommend weight lifting for anyone with high blood pressure as it increases BP to sometimes a dangerous limit.

Where was the ER guy for the first 10-15 minutes?  Why did it take him until after the paramedics got there to step in?  Just wondering.

Wow, that's crazy.  Ya Dave and I were just thinking last week how we needed to brush up on our Heimlich maneuver for babies (and adults) as well as CPR.  So last Monday we did that for FHE!  When Macy was born the numbers were 30 compressions, 2 breaths. I'm assuming that's still OK if I ever need to use it.  We also discussed if we'd be one to freak out, or stay calm.  I've had a few instances where I thought about freaking out and was able to stay calm, thank goodness. 

I can't believe that all happened right before your eyes.  You're kind of "off" all day huh, realizing how quickly your life can change.  Poor kid, watching his dad have a heart attack, that would be awful.

Erik says he's pretty current on that, and thats its 5 to 1. Used to be 30 to 2, then 15 to 1, and now its back to 5 to 1. That is a crazy story dad...that would be really tramautizing.

Clark, did you actually perform CPR on this guy?  It sounded like there were a lot of "we" so can't tell if just a couple gave the CPR or a group of individuals were taking turns.  I had the same question as Sean too.  That poor son. 

It is crazy how fast it changes, trying to stay current on CPR. Aaron just certified in it this summer, and said there were all sorts of things that were different than when we took CPR for Adele 5 years ago right before she was born. (A big one being, no more finger sweeps... I think).

I thought you weren't suppose to give breathes anymore and just do compressions.  I was told that the oxygen in the blood is enough if you keep it moving but I'm not 100% sure this is true.  You do fast compressions to the beat of "stayin alive" and after about 200 or 300, i can't rememeber, you check to see if they are breathing and they have a pulse.  With young kids and babies you hold them from behind and use your fingers. 

Brad said Dawn said on FB that the guy didn't make it.  Very sad.

sheesh, that is crazy sad.  the guy heads to the gym to get healthy, and collapses.  that really stinks.  i wonder who he was.

His name was Ralph Redington, 58, and he is survived by his wife, 2 sons, and 1 daughter.  He's on facebook.  His youngest son is a senior at Woodbridge High School and D knows him.  His oldest son was with him at the gym.  Ralph was also active in the Woodbridge Village Association, and D's ex-girlfriend Katy worked for him when she was a lifeguard at their community pools.   The gym is pretty big, and Ralph collapsed on one side right near a dividing wall, so 2/3 of the gym didn't know anything was going on at first.  I assume that the MD was not in line of sight when we were first working with him.  I was working out right next to the son over in the free weights, before walking around the wall to see what Dawn was up to.  I think the son came over just before the paramedics arrived; not sure.  After the other guy and I layed Ralph on the floor, I was checking for breathing and heart beat and there was none.  One lady, who was getting on my nerves, kept saying "Start CPR" over and over, but I wanted to take two seconds to make sure we weren't going to be doing compressions on a beating heart.  We pulled his shirt up, and at the same moment that I was certain that he had no heartbeat, Rebecca started doing compressions.  I was on Ralph's left side, she was on his right.  Then the Personal trainer knelt down next to Rebecca at Ralph's head.  Rebecca started with 5 and 1, but we settled in at 20 and 2.  After about 2 minutes, she paused, and I put my ear on his chest; no heart beat, although he would infrequently gasp in a breath.  The Physical Trainer and I were trying to keep his head level because with his head on the floor, it seemed to torque his neck back too far and close his airway.  We propped his head with a towel for a little bit, but ended up just cradeling his head on our hands.  So as we continued, I coached Rebecca that we needn't pause for the breath if he had just gasped one in.  Rebecca was quick to give him the first breaths, thankfully, as for one second I was kind of psyching myself for it.  I've seen heart attack victims vomit.  So I remained in the role of coach, heart beat monitor, and head holder while she was doing compressions and mouth to mouth.  The Manager put the AED pads on proly 5 minutes in, and the machine told us to clear, then shocked him.  There was no pulse, so it instructed us to continue CPR.  That was reassuring to me that we hadn't missed a weak heartbeat.  The AED would announce every minute or so to continue CPR, and now that I think about it, I'm pretty sure that it actually shocked him a second time, because I remember Dawn telling me to move back cause my knee was almost touching his arm on the 2nd shock.  I googled CPR and the current 2010 recommended ratio is 30 and 2.  Circulation is very critical, but it doesn't take a lot of respiration to oxygenate the lungs.  During this event, I was watching Ralph's color pretty closely, and it was not bad, with just a hint of blue, so I felt that the 20/2 that we were doing was being effective.  As a strange footnote, Dawn and I went to Target this evening, which is rare.  And we ran into Rebecca, who began trembling when she was talking about it.  Rebecca was still very upset about the event, and had gone to Target to take her mind off of it.  Then she runs into us!!  Poor girl!  She is second guessing herself on the 20/2; did she blow hard enough when she ventilated him, etc.  While talking with Rebecca, we still didn't know if he had made it or not.  We found out via text when we were driving home.  

Very scary event, and sorry to hear he didn't make it. What I heard on the breathing/mouth-to-mouth is that it is helpful but that chest compressions are the most important part, and too many people were not doing CPR at all because they didn't want to do mouth-to-mouth (didn't know how, worried about germs, worried about vomiting, etc.) So they have started to emphasize more the chest compressions, figuring that is better than nothing.

Well, you guys obviously did your best and I'm sure the family is very appreciative for your efforts.  Sounds like he was a good guy and could have had a few years left in him. 

Brad spotted this note about Ralph from the WVA...

http://wva.org/

That's too bad.  This episode deters me from returning to the gym.

Hmm, doesn't really seem overweight at all.  Looks like he was in decent shape in these pictures.  Maybe they are old?

Yeah, he was definitely bigger than what it looks like in the pictures on FB and on WVA.