By Alexi Howk
Sun-Sentinel
Copyright 2007 Sun-Sentinel Company
All Rights Reserved
Related Video: Scripps Treasure Coast Newspapers - Full Story
PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — The 25-year-old exotic dancer had performed for Daniel Karpinski on several occasions, but this time it was breathtaking.
Karnesha Nantz is being hailed as a hero for helping revive Karpinski after he passed out midway through her private performance at his Port St. Lucie home early Friday.
Nantz said Karpinski was sitting on his couch watching her dance for about 20 minutes. Facing a television with her back toward him, she asked him, “Do you like this, baby?” while swiveling her hips back and forth, she said.
She turned around and realized her 46-year-old client had passed out.
“He looked like he was dead,” Nantz said. “I had to pull him to the floor, and I tilted his head.”
Using the first-aid skills she learned in the fourth grade, Nantz began performing CPR and called 911. She continued CPR until she was relieved by paramedics who revived Karpinski, according to a Port St. Lucie police report.
Karpinski was released from St. Lucie Medical Center about 4 p.m. Friday. He said doctors initially told him they found something in his EKG scan but then determined he overmedicated himself on prescription medication. Karpinski said he took pills for anxiety.
“I had no heart attack,” he said.
When a police officer arrived at Karpnski’s home at 12:50 a.m., he located a bottle of prescription oxycodone that was in Karpinski’s name, according to the report. Karpinski said that was a 2-year-old prescription he took to relieve pain from kidney stones. He said he no longer takes the medication.
The report also states that Karpinski told an officer Nantz offered him a pill wrapped in a paper towel. Karpinski told an officer Nantz asked him, “Are you going to take one with me?” He said he took the pill of his own free will.
Nantz, who was driven to Karpinski’s home by her husband, John, for security reasons, told police that Karpinski had been drinking from a glass while she was dancing and that he had, on numerous occasions, offered her several prescription narcotics.
“I never offered him any pills,” she said, adding that she dances part-time to help pay for her college education.
She said she dances for people she knows as part of her own private business.
Karpinski called Nantz a friend and a hero.
“I don’t remember anything except for waking up in the ambulance,” he said. “I’m a little embarrassed, but I’m glad she was there to revive me.”