Fire Department Helps Save Two Lives at YMCA

A woman suffered a heart attack during a cardiac wellness class at the last month, but received quick treatment thanks to the , officials said. 

The Fire Department was called when the woman said she was feeling weak, according to information released by the Fire Department. She had been in the class when she started to feel chest pain.

(Albany firefighters also function as the city's Emergency Medical Services providers.)

When firefighters arrived, the woman was on her back in the care of an on-scene nurse.

"We used our monitor to take a 'look' at her heart ... which revealed that she was indeed having a heart attack," said firefighter Desmond Smyth in a report written Feb. 22 about the incident, which occurred Feb. 11. "(Due to) This ability to check for heart attacks ... we were able to select Summit (a local specialty facility) as our destination and the woman was able to bypass several hospitals and receive the expert care that she would not at a non cardiac receiving hospital."

It wasn't the only serious medical call to the YMCA last month.

On Feb. 5, the Fire Department responded to a report of a woman who wasn't breathing.

"Upon arrival we found a female, supine on the ground, with bystander CPR in progress. CPR was stopped and it was determined the patient had a carotid pulse with no respirations," wrote Capt. John Weitzel on Feb. 15 in a report to Chief Marc McGinn. "The patient was place on our Phillips monitor and ventilations were initiated.  Shortly after ventilations began the patient went into cardiac arrest with a shockable rhythm.... The patient was defibrillated ... resulting in a pulse with a viable rhythm and ... stable blood pressure."

Fire department personnel continued to ventilate the woman, established an intravenous line and provided further life support care, according to Weitzel. The Berkeley Fire Department continued advance life support care and took the woman to the hospital. 

Weitzel said he spoke with the woman on Feb. 15.

"She told me she did not suffer any deficits as a result of this incident," he wrote. "I would like to thank all those involved, especially the bystanders at the Albany YMCA for their courageous actions. is paramount to the chain of survival and recovery of anyone in such a critical situation."

Everybody makes mistakes ... ! If there's something in this article you think should be corrected, or if something else is amiss, give editor Emilie Raguso a call at 510-459-8325 or shoot her an e-mail at emilier@patch.com.