By Michael Urban
Republican & Herald
CRESSONA, Pa. — When Bruce Bredbenner woke up from the cardiac arrest that nearly killed him, his doctors told him that he owed his life to a decision to play bingo.
Instead of eating dinner at home, Bredbenner, 74, and his wife, Bev, 72, stopped in to play bingo at the Good Will Hose Company on Sillyman Street in Cressona on Aug. 5.
During the second game, around 6:45 p.m. , Bredbenner’s heart stopped.
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A nurse, a veteran firefighter, and an 18-year-old high school senior with fresh EMT training stepped in within 30 seconds to perform CPR and use an automated external defibrillator (AED) until Schuylkill EMS arrived.
Bredbenner, a resident of Hamburg who has congestive heart failure, remains in the intensive care unit at Lehigh Valley Hospital—Cedar Crest in Allentown. Doctors expect him to move to a regular room soon and return home within a few weeks.
“If we would have gone home that night instead of to bingo, he’d be dead now,” Bev said. “That’s for sure.”
From his hospital bed this week, Bredbenner thanked those who helped him. Bev also wants them to know how grateful the family is, including the couple’s three daughters and four grandchildren.
The couple’s first great-grandchild is set to arrive in October, but that girl would never get the chance to meet Bruce if it weren’t for the lifesaving efforts of people he didn’t know, but that Bev now considers family.
“I don’t know if they realize how many lives they’ve touched,” Bev said.
Right place, right time
The couple traveled to Schuylkill County earlier that day for Bredbenner’s cardiopulmonary physical therapy session. And though he isn’t a bingo player, he saw that Good Will was holding a game in honor of the country’s 250th anniversary, and that appealed to him. He asked Bev to stop there so they could try their luck, and she agreed.
If they have followed their regular routine, they would have been home eating dinner when Bruce’s heart stopped. Bev feels it was divine intervention that put Bruce and his rescuers in the same place at the right time.
“Those people were absolutely wonderful,” she said. “Thank goodness for the fire company, and for the Lord.”
When Bredbenner collapsed, three strangers in the hall sprang into action.
There was Stacie Herring of Palo Alto, a longtime registered nurse who works as a nurse educator and was playing bingo that night. Dave Clewell of Barnesville, who was also playing, has been a firefighter for almost 40 years and recently served as deputy chief of the Hometown Fire Department. Helping to run the bingo was Austin Mumbauer, who just turned 18 and is entering his senior year at Blue Mountain High School, where he recently took a course to get his EMT certification.
Nichole Mumbauer, Austin’s mother and the fire company treasurer, said that people quickly moved tables to clear space on the floor. Finding no pulse, Herring cleared Bredbenner’s airway while Clewell began chest compressions. Austin operated a bag-valve mask to provide oxygen while the team prepped the AED.
“It was seamless,” Nichole Mumbauer said. “It was like they’d done it 100 times together.”
There were about 165 people in the building at the time.
“The only sounds were people crying and praying,” she said.
Change of prognosis
When the ambulance left for LVH—Schuylkill in Pottsville, no one knew if Bredbenner would survive.
Late that night, Bruce was transferred to LVH—Cedar Crest.
Initially, doctors warned the family to prepare for the worst.
However, tests confirmed Bredbenner suffered no brain damage from oxygen deprivation, a result of the CPR he received.
“His mind is fine,” she said.
‘One big act of teamwork’
For Austin Mumbauer, who plans to attend nursing school after graduation, the experience reinforced for him that helping to save lives is the career he wants.
“I know that it’s the right path for me,” he said.
Herring was thankful to hear that Bredbenner was doing well.
“It’s a fantastic feeling,” she said of knowing that she and others on hand helped save him. “Our bingo family came through.”
Herring, Clewell and Mumbauer all said that they relied on their training during the stressful moment.
“It was a scary situation, but everybody stayed calm and did what had to be done,” Clewell said. “It was one big act of teamwork.”
Nichole Mumbauer said that she was proud of her son, Clewell, Herring and the others who helped. That includes her husband, Brian Mumbauer, the Good Will fire chief who ran and got the AED, Cressona Fire Chief Mike Pontician, who called 911, and those who assisted in different ways like putting a pillow under Bredbenner’s head and helping Bev to gather her things.
Road to recovery
Nichole started a GoFundMe campaign for the Bredbenners to raise money to assist them with their everyday bills, hospital expenses and the cost of Bev traveling back and forth to visit her husband.
“The financial strain of everything they are dealing with right now is tremendous,” she said.
Those wishing to contribute can go to gofund.me/b22197f77.
For Bev and Bruce, this is the newest chapter in a 55-year romance that began in 1970 when they were teenagers working at a Woolworth’s department store in Reading.
“I told my mom that he was the man I was going to marry before I even knew his name,” she said. “I knew that he was going to complete me.”
Bruce worked for Penske Leasing in Reading before retiring about a decade ago.
Though he and Bev have battled through health issues, they both want more time together.
“He’s a wonderful man,” Bev said. “I can’t imagine my life without him.”
Thanks to a quick-thinking room of strangers in Cressona, she won’t have to.
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