Tangerine Bay doctors aid heart attack victim

Four doctors were in the right place at the right time on Friday.

A contractor renovating a unit in the Tangerine Bay Club suffered a heart attack on Friday, Feb. 3. Thankfully, four doctors were on site and started doing CPR and using the on-site AED, automatic external defibrillator, until the Longboat Key Fire Department arrived.

When the fire department arrived, EMTs were able to continue CPR procedures and give the man medicine. As the ambulance left the scene, his pulse returned and he was trying to breathe on his own, Longboat Key Fire Chief Paul Dezzi said.

“The AED did its job and those people that were doing CPR did their job,” he said.

The four men that responded with the AED were doctors Charles Wilkinson, Walter Stark, Arthur Geller and Sanford Mackman. Geller said that each building and the clubhouse at Tangerine Bay Club have a defibrillator. He said the group decided that instead of stopping and calling 911, they could use the defibrillator which would send a signal to the fire department.

“Here’s the point, we decided about 10 years ago that with our elderly, by and large, group of individuals residing here, we have 90 families in 10 buildings, the only way you could cover the entire complex is for each building to have a defibrillator onsite in a cabinet that once the door got opened the ambulance would be summoned,” he said.

The man was transported to Sarasota Memorial Hospital where he underwent surgery on Feb. 6.  The fire department is waiting to hear the outcome of the surgery.

Dezzi said that the AEDs do save lives and having them on site can be helpful. The AED device analyzes the heart’s rhythm and if necessary will send an electrical shock to help the heart re-establish an effective rhythm.

“There is absolutely no doubt that what they did gave him a chance of survival,” Dezzi said.

This is a developing story and more information will be added as it becomes available.