by Alex Rozier, King on Aug 22, 2017
Bob Brown, 82, while waiting in line at a Mariners game to receive an Edgar Martinez bobblehead, suddenly collapsed. RCSW Medical Adviser Josh Benditt was also in line, only feet away, and he stepped in to save Bob’s life.
Brown had a heart attack in 2005 and had an internal defibrillator placed. While in line he became short of breath and was in a cardiac crisis, but the defibrilator apparently didn’t activate.
“I was pressing too hard, and I ran out of breath,” Brown said.
“You had no pulse, no respiration,” Benditt said. “Your lips were blue, and you were not breathing or making any motion.”
Josh Benditt is a Pulmonary Attending, the Medical Director of their Respiratory Care Department, a Professor of Medicine, and Adjunct Professor of Rehabilitation Medicine at UW Medical Center. He had done CPR hundreds of times, but only a few times has it been out in public for all to see. Thankfully, everything worked out.
“I said, ‘Well, we need to do CPR’ and that lasted probably a minute to 90 seconds, and then all of a sudden his defibrillator gave him an internal shock, and he woke up,” Benditt said.
Benditt was able to meet with Brown in the days after the incident. He explained the issue to him during that conversation.
“What the cardiologists think happened is that the CPR got just enough blood past your aortic valve that was narrowed to give yourself oxygen to be able to accept the defibrillator shock,” Benditt said to Brown.
Brown was able to express his gratitude.
“I looked right at him, looked right in his eyes, and he was looking right back, and I said ‘I can never, ever, thank you enough, ’ and I hope to be able to for the rest of my life,” Brown said with tears in his eyes.
At 82, Brown now has a new lease on life, and he also has an amazing new friend. When Benditt met Brown in the hospital, he brought him a gift -- one of the Edgar Martinez bobbleheads that Benditt and his wife got that day.