A woman who suffered a cardiac arrest at the gym was saved by quick-thinking heroes who were working out beside her. Photo / CCTV
A woman who suffered a cardiac arrest at the gym was saved by quick-thinking heroes who were working out beside her.
Emily Counter was on the rowing machine at Anytime Fitness in Noosa, Australia, when she had a seizure.
The 21-year-old suddenly slowed, paused and then collapsed onto the ground beside the machine.
"I was completely out of it and I don't remember anything," Counter told 7 News.
Not moving and unresponsive, six gym members suddenly rushed to her aid, with some starting to give the woman CPR.
Gym owner Aaron Petterson and member Ben Duffy ran to get the defibrillator, with Petterson revealing Counter "started to go blue" in the face.
They attached the defibrillator to her and continued to give her vital CPR, managing to start Counter's heart again.
"We got everyone to stand back and we had to press the button and she jumped up just like it was on a movie," Petterson recalled.
Counter was rushed to hospital, where she remained in a coma for three days and needed open-heart surgery.
After further tests, Counter was diagnosed with Bland-White-Garland Syndrome (BWGS), a rare form of heart disease which, if untreated, can be fatal.
"I'm one in 300,000. Most don't survive past infancy if they've got this condition," she told 7 News.
After making a remarkable recovery, the Sunshine Coast local told the Courier Mail she initially thought the pain she felt in the gym was just down to her being unfit.
"I was getting heart pain and I was struggling breathing when I was running, way before I had this happen, and I thought I just wasn't fit enough."
More than four months on the young woman can now start exercising again and now wants to get defibrillators in every gym.
She says if it wasn't for the defibrillator in the gym that day she wouldn't be alive.
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