An Edmonton man is crediting the fast action of off-duty health workers for saving his life.
Fifty-six-year-old Bob Chomyn was on his way to brunch when he felt what he thought was severe hurt burn.
Shortly after, Chomyn went into cardiac arrest at the restaurant he was in.
That’s when two medical residents and an emergency room nurse – all rushed to help.
They performed CPR on Chomyn and used an automated external defibrillator to bring the man back to life.
“Luck, fortune, there’s no other way to explain it,” Chomyn said.
“If they weren’t there or if the defibrillator wasn’t there, there’s only like a five per cent chance of surviving that, so real fortunate, extremely.”
Andrea Tamm, one of the three people who rescued Chomyn, said the group was just having brunch when they noticed something had gone terribly wrong.
“I looked over to the table at my left and I noticed Bob sitting there and because of my training, I knew that the he was looking was not healthy. He was breathing noisily, his eyes were glazed over, he was slumped over, so I just ran over and started to do what I know to do from my training,” Tamm said.
“Even then he had no pulse.”
So the trio put Chomyn on the floor, performed CPR and used the defibrillator.
“We just continued to do our best to support his airway and keep his blood pumping until EMS arrived,” Tamm said.
It was the first time Tamm had used her medical training outside of a hospital setting.
“It was quite surreal,” she said.
Chomyn was in hospital for about a week after the incident, which took place about two months ago.
Since then his health has greatly improved, he’s been doing rehabilitation and hopes to be back at work next week.
Chomyn also says perhaps more is in store in his future since the life-changing experience.
“I just feel fortunate,” he said.
“Maybe there’s something I still have to do, I don’t know what that is yet but we’ll see.”
