YMCA defibrillator helps save man's lifeSunday, July 27, 2008
( updated 3:00 am)
By Adria Hairston
Staff Writer
Ragsdale YMCA fitness instructor Stacy Varvel and member John Dixon stand at the site where Dixon's heart stopped on the abdominal crunch machine June 9. Varvel's quick response with CPR and an automatic external defibrillator are believed to have saved Dixon's life.
John Dixon of Jamestown looks like the picture of health.
He eats right. He plays golf and other sports. And he exercises regularly at the Ragsdale YMCA.
But on June 9, after a busy day of exercise, Dixon almost lost his life.
The quick response of a YMCA employee restarted Dixon's heart.
"It was a hot, humid day, and I had played golf all day in Salisbury - I played very well," Dixon recalled. "By 6 p.m., I got home to greet my wife before her 7 p.m. shift at High Point Regional Medical Center and felt good enough to head out to the gym to work out a bit."
Dixon recalled doing exactly 12 minutes of cardio on the stair-stepping machine and two sets of 25 crunches on the assisted abdominal crunch machine.
What Dixon said he can't remember is what happened next - his heart stopped beating. He was in cardiac arrest.
"Someone ran to me and said, 'Stacy, there's a man having a seizure on one of the machines.' Heart attacks and cardiac arrest have symptoms like a seizure," said Stacy Varvel, a Ragsdale YMCA fitness instructor.
Varvel said Dixon's face went from pale to blue. His chest was moving but there was no pulse.
"I began yelling for everyone to clear the fitness room and just began doing CPR," Varvel said. "I did five rounds of CPR before getting the AED hooked up."
The AED - an automatic external defibrillator - treats abnormal electrical activity in the heart called cardiac arrhythmia. The device uses electrical therapy to stop the arrhythmia, allowing the heart to re-establish an effective rhythm.
After using the defibrillator once, Varvel said Dixon didn't respond, so she began with the CPR again.
"Because they (YMCA employees) told 911 he was having a seizure, the operator said to not do CPR," Varvel said. "So I was getting all of these different instructions and I began thinking, 'He is not going to make it if he can't get CPR.'"
The moment those thoughts entered Varvel's mind, she said Dixon took a deep breath.
"At first I was shocked, because I really did think he was gone," she said.
The feeling of shock was quickly replaced with relief, and the smile on her face was read by YMCA members who looked on from the window to the fitness room as a good sign.
"The members began smiling and talking to one another again," Varvel said. "It was a good moment."
Dixon was taken to High Point Regional Hospital, and a doctor discovered he had five blockages in his heart.
Dixon underwent open heart surgery with great success.
Dixon said he is back at the YMCA doing cardiac rehab. He and his doctor are convinced Stacy's skills, the YMCA staff's quick reactions and the shocks he received from the defibrillator saved his life.
"I appreciate Stacy and I appreciate life that much more now," Dixon said. "When I was under cardiac arrest, I didn't see any angels or white light - that's why I believe I was meant to make it so that I could tell this story."
Dixon said he lived so he could be an example of what can happen if you don't pay attention to what your body is trying to tell you.
"Thinking back, I can recall some tightness in my chest when I was exercising," Dixon said. "But I didn't think much about it because it was so subtle."
Dixon said once he is fully recovered, he hopes to go back to being as active as he was before the heart attack.
"There was no heart damage, and if tests show that the surgery was a complete success, then I'm good to go," Dixon said.
"I'll be like a rebuilt engine - ready to go another 62 years."
