Bill Richardson, Tom Ingui and Tom Beach do not know each other, but they have a lot in common. And each should be thankful this Thanksgiving, as all three were recently saved by quick-thinking health club staff and club members, some of whom had just attended life-saving classes.
Richardson was saved in a Minneapolis-area LA Fitness last month by personal trainer Chris Ransom, who says he had just learned CPR a few weeks prior. Richardson, a 55-year-old marathon runner, suffered a heart attack caused by two blocked arteries.
"They call what I had 'the widow maker' because most people don't survive that," he told FOX TV station KMSP.
Ingui, 75, suffered cardiac arrest last month in an Anytime Fitness in Riverside, CA. Assistant manager Noel Basilides and another club member stepped in for the rescue, using CPR and an automated external defibrillator (AED).
"What's really crazy is I took my AED, CPR class one week ago," Basilides told FOX station KTTV in Los Angeles.
Beach, 66, suffered a heart attack last month at Club Fitness in Rehoboth Beach, DE, the Cape Gazette newspaper in Lewes, DE, reported. Misty Cunningham, a registered nurse, and Andy Manning, a state park ranger and CPR instructor, came to Beach's aid using the AED that Club Fitness Manager Ben Wynne grabbed from behind the front desk. Manning shocked Beach with the AED; Cunningham performed CPR.
Beach began to regain consciousness and was taken to a local hospital.
"I call them my CPR angels," Beach said of Manning and Cunningham. "I had two people in there who knew what to do and how to do it."
Beach, Ingui and Richardson aren't the only ones feeling thankful these days.
"I'm just thankful that I had the opportunity that was given to me to learn the basics of saving someone's life," Ransom said.
"It's one of those moments in life I'm so proud to have had," Cunningham said. "For [Beach] to come around and be alert by the time EMS got there … that's pretty profound. I feel blessed to have gone through it."