ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. (WFLA) — A fan at a Tampa Bay Rays game is alive thanks to the help of a fellow fan and emergency responders.
St. Petersburg Fire Rescue said a fan at Friday’s Rays game had an episode of cardiac arrest around 6:45 p.m. The fan immediately showed signs of being unconscious so a nearby fan placed him on the ground and began performing CPR.
Three first responders rushed to the fan and immediately started to perform life-saving care. They were able to get the fan’s heart beating again and took him to the closest hospital.
Once the fan arrived at the hospital, he was completely awake and speaking clearly, firefighters said.
“In this situation, time is sensitive. So luckily, we got there within that time sensitive timeframe and was able to have this gentleman’s heart start beating again,” Lt. Garth Swingle said.
Janie Morales, an ultrasound tech, helped save the man’s life.
“I get in front of this guy and he is just blue,” she said. “There was this guy, he was trying to do CPR, he wasn’t doing it right. I was like, ‘move.'”
Morales said she began to perform CPR on the man and he eventually started breathing again.
“It was so quick. Everything happened so fast,” she said.
Morales said she has been certified for years but she’s never had to perform CPR on someone. “Never did I think I would use it at a baseball game,” she said.
Morales said she is not a hero and that she just did some CPR. She also said she would love to meet the man she helped.
“With the teamwork of the nearby fans, SPFR, Tampa Bay Rays staff, and St. Petersburg Police hopefully this fan will be able to return and enjoy the experience of another baseball game,” St. Petersburg Fire Rescue said in a news release.
Firefighters said approximately 350,000 people per year experience sudden cardiac arrest and receive attempted resuscitation in the United States and Canada.
Anyone interested in learning CPR can take classes with St. Peterburg Fire Rescue. To learn more about the classes, visit St. Petersburg Fire Rescue’s website.
