By Roman Gokhman
Inside Bay Area
Copyright 2008 MediaNews Group, Inc. and ANG Newspapers
PLEASANTON, Calif. — Pete Walling remembers getting on the treadmill at ClubSport on Dec. 18.
The 62-year-old said he goes to the fitness club often, and that he had worked out longer than usual on that day. He was thinking about hitting the shower, but then decided for a round on the incline treadmill.
After he began to exercise, he glanced over at the person next to him, and then turned his head toward the television.
“Then everything went black,” he said. “There was no pain — just nothing.”
Walling had a heart attack and an employee at the health club used cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR, and a defibrillator device to save Walling’s life. Livermore-Pleasanton fire officials are encouraging more residents to learn CPR because their actions could make a difference in an emergency.
Now the California Emergency Medical Services Authority is writing new regulations that officials hope will make it easier for all businesses to get defibrillators.
After passing out, the next thing Walling remembers is a jolt.
“I leaned forward, gasped for air and I was back,” he said.
At the hospital, he learned that after being given CPR, a ClubSport manager arrived with the facility’s automated external defibrillator — also called an AED or shock paddles. The machine saved his life.
ClubSport employees get training and recertification every year, spokeswoman Christina Dort said. The club has had AEDs for about five years.
“Every staff member at our club is required to take training,” Dort said.
Defibrillators don’t always work. In 2007, two other incidents at ClubSport didn’t end so well.
On July 30, a man in his 50s suffered a massive heart attack, while on Dec. 5, a man in his 30s suffered a heart attack while playing tennis and injured his head when he fell.
AEDs were used both times, but in each case the man died.
The Legislature passed a law that went into effect July 1, requiring all fitness clubs in California to have them.
Livermore-Pleasanton fire Capt. Glen Doty, one of several emergency responders who transported Walling to the hospital after his heart attack, said chances for survival go down quickly if the heart is not defibrillated within minutes of the emergency.
“Having an AED within arm’s reach and having (the patients) shocked before we get there is crucial,” Doty said.
The Emergency Medical Services Authority’s current proposal calls for emergency physicians to be able to prescribe AEDs to any business, as long as the business provides extensive training and certification to employees.
But each business also must hire its own medical director to oversee the program, and most cannot afford one.
John Vonhof, pre-hospital care coordinator for the Alameda County Emergency Medical Services, said the proposed regulations are in their infancy and nothing concrete has been determined.
“In an ideal scenario, by the time the fire department arrives, there is already someone giving CPR or using a defibrillator,” Imrie said. “If you can assist someone before help arrives, it could be huge.”