Thirty eight year old Greg Lehner was a regular at Lifestyle Family Fitness, working out five days a week. One typical Sunday he started off strong but ended up in the emergency room.

"The doctors told me that I suffered from sudden cardiac death and my heart stopped pumping blood," Lehner said.

A group of employees and fellow members including Robin and Chris Forgione, Justin Hinton and Mike Barnes came to his aid. They were trained in CPR just weeks earlier which also included learning to use an AED or Automatic External Defibulator, a device that was used on Lehner.

"For every minute the use of the AED is delayed it decreases the person's survival rate by ten percent.  Having it on site greater increases a person chance for survival," Kathy Ellen with the Red Cross.

Lehner said it was the combination of CPR and the machine that kept him alive before EMS arrived.

"They saved my life and without their training on AED the doctors told me when this happens 97 percent of the people die, two percent brain damage and one percent survive with little or no problems," Lehner said.

Although the Red Cross encourages taking the class, they also offers this take home kit with a CD and a tool to practice CPR compressions.

"It was remarkable how the training was there and it was the reason we were able to come together," Lifestyle Family Fitness employee Robin Forgione said.

Lehner says he was released from the hospital in three days and is now back in the gym but says his wife and three kids are grateful to all those trained employees who helped saved his life.

"I think it was one of those fluke happening but with their training they started y heart up fast enough so there are no lasting effect," Lehner said.

Related Links

1. http://www.trianglearc.org