Potential Lifesaver

Defibrillators can make a life-or-death difference at local fitness centers.

Judith Doner Berne

Special to the Jewish News

Z

vi Kennet has no memory of
suffering a heart attack as he
was working out with a personal
trainer Dec. 7 at the Jewish Community
Center health club.
But the incident is indelibly stamped in
the minds of the people who saved his life.
Quickly alerted by Kennet's trainer,
Bill Check, membership services director
Wendi Douville at the Fitness Center in the
West Bloomfield JCC, arrived on the scene.
"He was blue, his eyes were rolled back
into his head, there was no pulse," Douville
said of the 45-year-old Farmington Hills
orthodontist, husband and father of 4-
year-old Romy.
She took over from JCC member Philip
Barach, a retired policeman who was
administering mouth-to-mouth resuscita-
tion, and began cardiopulmonary resusci-
tation (CPR).
A JCC swimming supervisor, Ernie
Thomas, hooked up the nearest automated
external defibrillator (AED) and Douville
began following its detailed instructions.
"It tells you everything;' she said.
"When I zapped him, his entire body
lifter said the Waterford mother of two
young boys. "By the time EMS came (in
approximately 10 minutes), his color had
returned and he was breathing on his
own.
"The JCC staff did what it should, put
the AED on the person, and let it do its
job," said Emergency Medical Services
Capt. Mike Flynn of the West Bloomfield
Fire Department.
Kennet awoke at Providence Hospital in
Southfield to discover he had suffered a
massive heart attack from two blockages in
one of his arteries. They were repaired, he
said, with one long stent.
"I'm back to work. I'm exercising in
the hospital. I was very fortunate he said
when contacted in late January.

Expandeti Coverage

Mark Lit, JCC executive director, wants to
ensure a continued high level of emergency
response.

Since Kennet's successful resuscitation,
Lit has added two AEDs to the three the
West Bloomfield JCC had. They are on the
walls of the health club, the early childhood
center, the pool area, Inline Hockey Center
and at the main lobby's front desk.
The AED at the Oak Park JCC is centrally
located at the front desk.

members, they're our people. We answer to
a higher power!'
Douville says an AED has been used
only one other time at the JCC. That's
despite the fact that approximately a mil-
lion people go through the JCC's doors
each year, ranging from infants to the frail
elderly. She has witnessed two incidents in

Lit also is in the process of hiring a staff
member who will be responsible for safety
on both campuses. Frequent drills will be
added to enhance emergency procedures
and training.
"It's been something I've wanted to do:'
said Lit, who has been at the JCC for about
a year and a half. s "I've always been a big
one for preparedness. These aren't just

which CPR was used. "This was my first
time doing CPR on somebody"
The JCC and two other area health clubs,
Franklin Athletic Club and the Sports Club
of West Bloomfield, have had AEDs on
hand for years.
All three were way ahead of a new law,
sponsored by state Sen. Gilda Jacobs, D-
Huntington Woods, that requires all fitness

clubs in Michigan to have defibrillators
and staff trained to use them. (See related
story)

Franklin Athletic Club

"We have an AED in the center of the club:'
said Itsy Saar, fitness manager at Franklin
Athletic Club, located in Southfield and
owned by Rick Brode. "We've never had a
situation that we had to use it."
Like the other health clubs, most of
Franklin's accidents are due to falls, ankle
twists, loss of balance or dehydration, Saar
said. All clubs have procedures in place
that include an immediate call to 9-1-1.
Personal trainer Rich Crackel, a Canton
firefighter/ paramedic, presides over in-
house emergency train-
Wendi Douville
ing classes regularly
with a defibril-
offered to Franklin's
!Mar at the
trainers, tennis pros
JCC's Fitness
and lifeguards, with
Center in West
Franklin picking up the
Bloomfield.
cost. "We're currently
recertifying everyone;'
Saar said.
At least three of the people taking a
recent five-hour class were being recerti-
fied. New CPR techniques are even more
efficient, Crackel told them. For instance,
"there's no more taking time to check for
a pulse. If they're not breathing, they don't
have a pulse or they're not going to have a
pulse."
"I've been a lifeguard for a number of
years. I've never had to use CPR," said
Franklin's Sarah Paske. "I've had to pull
kids out of the water."
But another lifeguard, Robert Bajer, once
used CPR to save someone at another pool.
Paske and Bajer said the training made
them feel confident that they would be able
to do what was necessary

The Sports Club of West Bloomfield has
had an AED for eight years, says owner
Don Arndt. "Back then, the fire department
didn't want us to get one so we had to get a
prescription from one of our doctors!'
Every Sports Club employee is trained in
first aid, CPR and AED for infants, children

Lifesaver on page 16

February 22 2007

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