Quick-thinking by two trained Emergency Medical Technicians, who
were in the right place at the right time, saved the life of a
61-year-old man who collapsed from a heart attack.
Quick-thinking by two trained Emergency Medical Technicians, who were in the right place at the right time, saved the life of a 61-year-old man who collapsed from a heart attack.
Employee Isaiah Plaza, 20, was washing his hands Oct. 17 in the restroom at the Tennant Station CineLux Theater in Morgan Hill, when he saw a man fall onto the floor near the urinals. When Plaza checked to see if he was OK, the man didn’t respond. The man’s friend, a retired EMT, was in a stall in the restroom and another friend came in and gave the unconscious man CPR. Plaza called 911.
“He wasn’t responding to the CPR. His friend said ‘Go get an AED!’ ” Plaza said, referring to an automated external defibrillator. Plaza ran across the parking lot to 24-Hour Fitness remembering they have defibrillators handy.
They hooked the unresponsive man to it and shortly thereafter the paramedics arrived to CineLux. They told Plaza that without the help of the defibrillator, the man would have died.
“You don’t come to work expecting to save someone’s life,” Plaza said.
Not yet, at least. On Oct. 14, Plaza took his EMT certification test after graduating from the EMT program at San Jose City College just a few months ago. The incident Sunday was his first real-life training.
“It took all of us, a team effort. Someone had to stay with him, someone had to run over there. I don’t take any credit. It took the three of us together,” Plaza said.
“I got this feeling like maybe I was meant to be there. For no reason I used that restroom, I never use that one. It just wasn’t that gentleman’s time to go.”
