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True Heroism
Local Lifestyle Family Fitness Employees and Members Help Save a Life
St. Petersburg, FL (January 17, 2010) – Lifestyle Family Fitness employees and members came to the rescue on December 21, 2010 at 9:15 p.m. at Lifestyle Family Fitness in Palm Harbor. A man was saved and three men were deemed hometown heroes.
As James Moore, Lifestyle Family Fitness employee finished his workout; he headed into the men’s locker room and noticed a man lying face down under a stall. Once James figured out the man was not moving he ran out to get help from a few other members, while front desk employee Evana Juarez, called 911 immediately.
“I didn’t think twice when asking other members for help then running to grab the automated external defibrillator (AED) machine. It’s the first thing you are taught to do in our AED/CPR class. The AED is an incredible piece of technology. Everyone should know how to use one.” states James Moore, one of the men that helped revive Michael Elledge back to life.
Three brave members, Cory Bittel, Gus Tsiouklas and another Lifestyle Family Fitness member named Lance took matters into their own hands. Michael Elledge, the member that was unconscious, was pulled out from under the bathroom stall, found to have no pulse and was blue in the face. Moore ran to grab the AED machine and came back to find Lance already doing chest compressions. Moore quickly unpacked the AED machine so Gus could place the face mask on Michael to start administering breaths. Cory cut Michael’s shirt open and placed the pads on his chest. The AED machine requested a charge so James pressed the button to charge only once. Michael started gasping for air on his own shortly after the paramedics arrived.
Michael, Preacher at the Palm Harbor Church of Christ, was taken to the hospital and had a stent and a pacemaker installed. Michael was released from the hospital and is anxiously waiting to get back into the club to continue his workouts once released from his physician.
Being CPR and AED certified helped James, Cory, Gus and Lance react in a calm manner, taking matters into their own hands and helping to save a life.
These heroes along with the EMTs and Paramedics that responded will be honored on January 18th at 2:00 in Lifestyle Family Fitness Offices.
Palm Harbor Fire Rescue personnel that responded were: Lt. Brent Breuer, Fire Fighter Paramedic Brian Fodor, and Fire Fighter Paramedic Scott Arntz along with two Sunstar personnel.
About Lifestyle Family Fitness
Lifestyle Family Fitness was founded in Lakeland, Florida in 1982 and currently owns and operates 55 locations in Florida, North Carolina, Columbus and Indiana. The International Health, Racquet and Sportsclub Association (IHRSA) ranked Lifestyle Family Fitness as one of the top 10 fastest growing fitness companies in the world.
AED/CPR Background
Each year an estimated 300,000 people die of Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) in the United States. Often only about 5 % survive. Here in Pinellas County in 2009, the last year of data available, there were 1,066 victims of SCA. Of those, we are above the national average with close to 13% surviving. Some of that is helped by the fact that over 40% had some help from by-stander CPR similar to what Corry, Gus and James did.
The other difference is having an AED nearby. An automated external defibrillator (AED) can shock some patients back into a normal rhythm. If an AED is used in the first minutes following collapse, they can be effective at converting the heart back into sinus rhythm. In 2009 there were six successful rescues where people walked out of the hospital like Michael. It was truly a Christmas present for all.
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