For the past 10 years, Pro Sports Club in Bellevue has been outfitted with Automated External Defibrillators (AEDs) and trained its staff on how to properly administer assistance in the event of an emergency. On August 10, all the planning paid off.
Around 6:30 a.m. that morning, Bill Krueger, formerly a pitcher with the Seattle Mariners and currently a television analyst for the team’s broadcast, stepped off the elliptical machine he was working out on and collapsed to the ground as a result of cardiac arrest. Noticing a member was in distress, 14-year Pro Club employee and Sr. Director of Engineering Tom Spencer and personal trainer Trevor Loos took action, locating the AED and applying chest compressions while other members of the staff phoned for emergency responders.
The initial read from the AED detected breathing, but a second scan called for a shock and a third cast member from Pro Sports Club, Carl Swedberg, pressed the button to deliver the shock. The AED restored Krueger’s breathing and pulse as a fourth and final member of the Pro Sports Club staff, Loic Sachs, called 911, with emergency responders arriving two to three minutes later.
“I know they are trained, but it’s just incredible,” Krueger said nearly two weeks later after meeting the cast members who helped him for the first time. “I’m humbled to appreciate the quick reaction of the Pro Sports Club cast, Redmond Fire Department and Bellevue Fire Department.”
Dick Knight, president of Pro Sports Club, said 511 of the club’s 750 employees are CPR and AED certified and the club trains 275 people per year to respond to incidents like this one. He said four or five cases have called for AED use in the past five years, and each time the device and training of the staff worked in concert to save a life.
“Every once in a while, we wonder if it is overly cautious,” Knight said. “But whenever we have an incident, we are really grateful.”
Krueger, who walked in holding the hands of his wife and daughter, said knowing his own limitations as it relates to his heart condition will be a major focus going forward and joked with a cast member who handed him a coffee shop gift card he left behind the day he collapsed.
“I don’t think I’ll be needing this,” he said with a laugh.
Mynorthwest.com is reporting that Krueger will return to his role with ROOT Sports soon.
Bill Krueger shakes hands with Trevor Loos, a cast member at Pro Sports Club in Bellevue after meeting him for the first time. JOSH SUMAN, BELLEVUE REPORTER.
