Joe Lomeli didn’t know he was dead. He thought he was dreaming.
The 75-year-old retired AT&T engineer had been lifting weights at Snap Fitness on Feb. 26 when he blacked out. His heart stopped and he wasn’t breathing, when quick action by a team of witnesses and then EMTs saved his life.
He got to meet and thank the people who brought him back to life this week.
“I was doing my normal routine and I was feeling good,” said Lomeli. “I had just increased my repetitions and weight. I’ve been eating a vegetarian diet. My cholesterol is 110 and the doctor said I had nothing to worry about. But all of a sudden, around 11 a.m., the lights went out. There were no symptoms. Not one. No dizziness. No tingling. No pain in my chest.”
Retired California Highway Patrol officer Teri Neidigh was working out right next to him when she saw him go down.
“I heard a loud noise and I thought the cable had broken on the weights. When I glanced over, I realized he had fallen. The way he looked at me, I could tell the lights were out but no one was home. He started to convulse and I rolled him toward me to keep his airway open.”
She yelled for someone to call 911 and before she started CPR, another man, Joel Goldsmith, rushed over to do it. By coincidence, Goldsmith had just had a refresher lecture about CPR at the Rotary Club and was up on the latest techniques. Goldsmith, heir to the Goldsmith Seeds business, was honored this month as the Gilroy Chamber of Commerce’s Man of the Year for his charitable efforts in the community.
“He didn’t have a pulse when I got to him,” said Goldsmith. “I went over and started doing chest compressions. I’ve taken CPR in the past but one thing that was critical is that I’m a member of Gilroy Rotary and one of the members is Dale Foster. A week earlier he had given an update on the latest protocols for CPR. The biggest change is you no longer do mouth-to-mouth, just chest compressions. New research says that if there is enough oxygen in the blood and you keep it flowing it can keep a person alive.”
Snap Fitness’ automated external defibrillator was a huge help with step-by-step instructions, including giving Lamali an electric shock to try and revive his heartbeat.
“It’s such a great device,” said Goldsmith. “It tells you what to do. You can pull it out and even with no training, you would be OK.”
Meanwhile, an EMT crew from Sunrise Fire Station was speeding over, arriving in less than four minutes.
“He was clinically dead when we arrived,” said paramedic Herb Lee, part of the three-person crew. “Had they not done what they did, the outcome would not have been anywhere close to what it was. When people in the community are willing to step up and act, that’s what makes the difference for us in the fire department.”
Gilroy’s fire department has a goal of getting half the city’s population trained in CPR and is sponsoring classes with the Parks and Recreation Department. Check the city’s website for details. Lee is also publicizing a free phone app called Pulsepoint that lets you know the nearest locations of Automatic Defibrillators.
“This is very rare to have good Samaritans render aid and help someone get to live their life with a good outcome. It’s rare to have all the things come together hand in hand. We had good Samaritans using CPR with a defibrillator and paramedics to respond and continue the care, ” said Lee.
Lomeli blacked out and didn’t know what happened until he woke up at Kaiser Santa Teresa Hospital, where he had surgery to put stents into his arteries. He was released in three days, feeling good.
“When I woke up Saturday my first thought was that this was a dream,” he said. “I saw my family in there and I kept asking, what are you doing here? This is my dream. It took a while to register that I had an event and they saved my life. There was full restoration of all my faculties. Any brain damage I had was done prior to the event. I was fortunate these people were in the right place at the right time. They saved my life.”
