A trainer and members at Midtown Athletic Club in Bannockburn, IL, were recently honored for saving the life of another member who suffered a heart attack at the club.
Midtown trainer Rich Rossi, along with club members Rick Franklin and doctors Michael Sommerfeld, John Wolf and Anita Gupta, were recognized by the Deerfield-Bannockburn Fire Department at a recent ceremony held at the club. They helped revive 58-year-old Gary Greenburg on Sept. 27 after he suffered a heart attack while doing his daily cardio routine.
Rossi and the club members provided CPR with the aid of an automated external defibrillator (AED). Greenburg, who was not breathing and did not have a pulse when Rossi and the members reached him, was alert and talking by the time paramedics put him in an ambulance. He did not suffer any heart damage and underwent successful triple bypass surgery a few days later.
This guy is someones husband, a father, a work mentor, and someones friend, Rossi says. My only thought that morning was to do whatever I could to get him back awake. I knew his life mattered to someone, and with that mindset, I focused on the task at hand and did what I was trained to do.
Greenberg, who lost 80 pounds since joining the club in 2010, says he plans to take a CPR class and learn how to use an AED as a way to pay back his rescuers.
Once Gary was alive, all I really wanted was for him to have more time with his family, kids and friends, Rossi says. People use the term hero toward me, but really, all I did was help another human being at a time in need.