Quick response and access to an Automated External Defibrillator saved the life of Connie Schilling last month, after she collapsed from cardiac arrest at the Baker Road Life Time Fitness in Eden Prairie. Employees and another member of the fitness club used the AED and initiated CPR right away, a course of action without which Schilling would not have survived.

The city of Eden Prairie highlighted Schilling’s story and that of her rescuers during Tuesday’s City Council meeting as part of an update on the HeartSafe Eden Prairie Program. The program, which has been in place since 2003, first set out to ensure AEDs were located in city buildings, schools and churches. The next and ongoing phase of the program is to encourage businesses of Eden Prairie to keep AEDs on hand.

“We continue to talk to businesses locally about the benefits about having AEDS,” noted Assistant Fire Chief Steve Koering, in an interview.

“We’ve added a number of AEDs here locally to businesses and have learned of locations of AEDs that we didn’t know existed,” he said, adding “which is really the key part of HeartSafe.

“As much as we want you to have an AED, it’s also important for us to know it’s there and where it is,” he said.

By alerting the city to the locations of AEDs, 911 dispatchers can inform anyone who calls to report a cardiac arrest if such a device is on hand. It also lets rescuers know that there is one on site.
“It’s a very small cost that really creates a major impact on whether that person lives or dies in sudden cardiac arrest,” he added.
During the meeting Koering, the program coordinator for HeartSafe Eden Prairie, noted that, since its inception more than 60 AEDs have been either identified or have been purchased by local businesses in Eden Prairie.

An AED combined with early intervention CPR “is creating positive outcomes for victims of sudden cardiac arrest,” he said.
According to the American Heart Association, without access to defibrillation, 95 percent of cardiac arrest victims die before reaching the hospital, while in cases where defibrillation is provided within 5 to 7 minutes the survival rate goes up to 30 to 40 percent.
Connie Schilling’s case is almost a textbook example of the power of AEDs and the process of CPR.

“I’m living proof of how that was so important in saving my life that day,” said Schilling during the meeting.

Sudden cardiac arrest, where the heart just stops pumping, can come on without warning, which is exactly what happened to Schilling.
In an interview, Schilling described the morning of June 24 as a day like any other. She drove to the Life Time Fitness feeling fine, “as I usually do.”

Schilling, an Edina resident, parked the car and entered Life Time, but beyond that, she has no recollection. That’s where Life Time staff and fellow members helped fill her in. Apparently Schilling had started out on the elliptical and was moving on to the next station when she collapsed.

Front Desk coordinator Mary Ann Hascall was quick to coordinate a response, alerting staff to contact emergency officials, clearing the area, grabbing the AED device and alerting operations manager Mike Ferguson to the emergency. Ferguson, who has been a CPR instructor for the past 20 years, initiated use of the AED and CPR. This is the third time he’s had to use such emergency skills. Despite the experience, he noted that it’s extremely nerve-wracking.
“One of the benefits of an automated external defibrillator is the fact that it walks you through step by step,” said Ferguson.

Joining him in administering CPR was nurse Kim Haverstock, a Lifetime Fitness member, who happened to be at the club during the incident.

Haverstock was on the treadmill when she noticed an alarm going off, then saw Schilling on the floor off to the side. Schilling was blue and lifeless, recalled Haverstock, of Eden Prairie.

“We just kept doing CPR until the EMTs arrived,” Haverstock said.
Haverstock noted that it was her first time using an AED in that situation.

“It was nice to see the process work for the patient.”
Ferguson noted that this was his third time using an AED and CPR on someone in the past eight years.
People ask what it felt like, and the only word he can think of is “overwhelming.”

He noted there is a Hebrew word called mitzvah which means “the act of human kindness.”

That’s “why I do what I do,” he said. “We help others in time of need.”

Cardiac arrest does not always stem from heart disease. In many cases, its cause is unknown and sudden: Part of the reasoning behind programs like Eden Prairie Heart Safe is that such an episode can occur without warning anywhere, at anytime.

In the case of Schilling, she “had absolutely no warning.”

As it turns out, her heart is fine, her cardiac arrest was not the result of heart disease or blocked arteries. Schilling is not predisposed to something like this. “It’s just that an electrical misfiring occurred.”

Doctors recommended installing a defibrillator in Schilling to prevent the misfiring from happening again, though they conceded that is unlikely.

It’s terrifying to think the heart can just have a glitch, but in this case, the emergency restart button came from AED and CPR.

“These things can happen,” noted Schilling, who now considers it her mission to spread awareness about the issue.

“Every day I give thanks for being here.

“You check at your school, you check at your church, you check at your club. Just ask the question: Do we have a defibrillator here and are there people who know how to use it?”

Eden Prairie businesses can learn more about the Eden Prairie Heart Safe program by contacting Assistant Chief Koering at 952-949-8338 or visiting the program’s AED partner, www.cardiacscience.com. The idea of the program is to make the AED as common and accessible as fire extinguishers.

Schilling is happy to share her story and happy her rescuers were recognized by the city.

“They are dear dear people,” she said.

Ferguson even came to visit her in the hospital the afternoon of the incident and brought a bouquet of flowers.

“I said, ‘Mike, I owe you a roomful of flowers …’”

She recalled he said, “We were just doing our job.”

“Well, it worked,” she said.