Staff report
A 19-year-old man was hospitalized Monday after collapsing with a heart attack at the J.F. Hurley Family YMCA.
Jamie Morgan, chief executive officer of the Rowan County YMCA, said staff members performed CPR and used a defibrillator to save the man.
Morgan declined to release the man’s name. He said the man, who is a YMCA member, was in stable condition Monday evening at Presbyterian Hospital in Charlotte.
He said the man had been playing basketball before collapsing around 12:45 p.m. in the YMCA gym. As they administered CPR, staff members called for emergency medical responders.
“He was in full arrest whenever we got there,” said Salisbury Fire Capt. Tim Hurlocker. “… His heart was not beating and he was not breathing.”
Morgan said staff members used a YMCA-owned defibrillator to get the man’s heart beating again. He said it’s a standard piece of equipment at YMCAs, and every staff member is trained to use it, as well as to perform CPR. The device has been used at another Rowan YMCA branch, but this is the first time it’s been use at the Hurley YMCA, he said.
And Morgan said he didn’t want to single out any particular staff member for praise by naming the person who used the device. He said several full-time staff members assisted the man and used the training they practice in drills.
“There were multiple staff members that responded,” he said. “It was unfortunate that it happened, but I’m very proud of the way the staff responded. They responded very quickly and the way they have been trained to.”
Hurlocker said the man’s heart was beating but he required mechanical assistance to breathe when firefighters helped Rowan EMS workers load him into an ambulance.
The man was initially taken to Rowan Regional Medical Center and later to Presbyterian. Morgan said doctors there were performing tests to determine why he had a heart attack.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the young man and his family,” he said.