Fitness Club Merritt Island’s AED, Quick-Thinking Staff and Members Save ‘Big Frank’ Buzzo’s Life

FRANK BUZZO: Everyone took a knee and began praying – That gymnasium is a particular place.

Manny Shaw, Erik Johnson and Dana Allen: “They are three angels God despatched to save lots of me,” mentioned Frank Buzzo after a near-death cardiac occasion on the gymnasium.

BREVARD COUNTY • MERRITT ISLAND, FLORIDA – July 18 was speculated to be simply one other day in paradise for Frank Buzzo, however it shortly grew to become a day in hell for the 70-year-old Cocoa resident who could be very, very fortunate to be alive.

Buzzo and buddy Erik Johnson had gone to the Fitness Club Merritt Island, a favourite hangout Buzzo would go to a number of instances every week.

A world-champion weightlifter, “Big Frank” is a celeb on the Merritt Island gymnasium that shows pictures of him lifting lots of of kilos of weight.

At 6-feet-1-inches tall and 265 kilos, he’s an imposing determine who simply earned his nickname.

Because the highschool weightlifters Buzzo had taken underneath his wing have been preparing for a contest, Buzzo wished to encourage them by instance, so he determined to elevate 425 kilos that July day.

Big mistake.

“Frank would have hit the bottom if not for Erik’s fast actions,” mentioned Lou Manley, proprietor of Fitness Club.

Although Buzzo had by no means been sick and was in prime bodily form, he however overdid it, inflicting his coronary heart to fail.

“I received caught up in it, and it was an excessive amount of of factor,” mentioned Buzzo. “It was as if somebody had turned off the sunshine.”

The future regarded bleak for Big Frank, however, fortuitously, his mates weren’t going to let him go that simply and, fortuitously once more, Fitness Club Merritt Island has not one, however two, automated exterior defibrillators, or AEDs, on the facility.

“We assume each gymnasium ought to have at the very least one, however they aren’t required by the State of Florida,” mentioned Manley. “All our workers can also be educated in CPR and primary life help.”

Fitness Club group member Manny Shaw wasted no time in getting Buzzo and the AED collectively.

An further stroke of luck was that retired firefighter and present nurse Dana Allen was exercising at the moment, and Allen, along with Shaw and Frank’s buddy, Erik Johnson, desperately tried to save lots of Frank’s life.

“They are three angels God despatched to save lots of me,” mentioned Buzzo.

Minutes – no, make that seconds – have been treasured, as a result of Buzzo was not respiration and had no pulse. Even although emergency personnel from the Sheriff’s Office have been on the scene in a short time, adopted intently by a county EMS group, it might in all probability have been too late for him.

“Without the defibrillator, I might not be right here,” he mentioned.

It was solely after two shocks from the defibrillator that Buzzo returned to the residing.

“By the time EMS arrived, he was aware and respiration on his personal,” mentioned Manley.

After a number of days at Health First Cape Canaveral Hospital, Buzzo was again dwelling, and by August he had returned to the Fitness Club, albeit with a way more average agenda that entails primarily teaching the highschool athletes and present process gentle exercises.

“I’m not lifting something over 50 kilos,” he promised.

He higher not, or he could also be in serious trouble.

“His spouse advised me that if I see him lifting greater than 50 kilos, I ought to beat him with a stick,” joked Manley.

Manley acquired Fitness Club’s AEDs by way of Who We Play For, a nonprofit that helps forestall sudden cardiac deaths in younger athletes by offering inexpensive ECG screenings.

Evan Ernst, co-founder and government director of Who We Play For, was honored as a Central Florida Humanitarian in 2019 for his group’s advocacy that led to a mandate requiring electrocardiograms for student-athletes in Brevard.

The preventable dying of 15-year-old Cocoa Beach High pupil Rafe Maccarone, who died of cardiac arrest throughout a routine warmup in 2007, spurred the launch of the group.

Physician assistant Shawn Sima is aware of all too properly how a lot of a distinction an AED could make, since his daughter, Stacey, was saved by the tools. Stacey Sima is now coronary heart screening director for Who We Play For.

The AEDs Sima helped Manley acquire for the Fitness Club are even higher than the one which saved Stacey.

“They determine the dimensions of the particular person’s physique and is aware of how a lot shock to ship,” mentioned Sima of the $1,400 piece of apparatus.

Who We Play For is working to vary Florida legislation to require an AED in all gyms within the state.

“What occurred to Frank is going on a thousand instances a day within the United States,” mentioned Sima.

While Frank Buzzo didn’t have simply one other day in paradise this final July 18, he is aware of how lucky he’s to be alive and amongst such good mates. A safety digital camera video of the incident reveals how the greater than 100 folks within the gymnasium that day reacted to Frank’s plight.

“Everyone took a knee and began praying,” mentioned Buzzo. “That gymnasium is a particular place.”