A woman's life saved by fellow gym member during cardiac arrest in south metro
EAGAN, Minn. — An Eagan woman is recovering from cardiac arrest thanks to the quick thinking of gym staff and a stranger working out nearby.
Thuong Nguyen's family calls what happened at Life Time Fitness a miracle.
"She was walking on the treadmill and all of a sudden, she collapsed," said Van Truong, Nguyen's daughter.
The person working out next to Nguyen just happened to be a surgeon.
"Somehow an angel or somebody asked this doctor to wake up that day and was like, 'You're going to be at Life Time, and you're going to stand next to my mom and work out and she's going to collapse and you're going to save her,'" Truong said. "It's definitely a miracle, that's for sure."
Most of the staff at Life Time is CPR-certified and some have further medical training too, so a number of employees were able to jump in to help with CPR and using the defibrillator.
"All that was going through my mind was we need to save this woman," said Cori Benson, a Life Time employee.
Another employee who helped, Colter Porter, said, "It's a good feeling to help save someone."
Nguyen is now home recovering.
"She's just looking forward to being able to get her strength back to cook again, to hold her grandbabies," said Kimberly Caron, Nguyen's daughter.
They made sure to learn who the Good Samaritan surgeon was too.
"He doesn't necessarily want his name shared publicly, but he's willing to stop by and check up on her," Truong said. "He wants to stop by and meet us."
RELATED: Children's Minnesota pulls off double miracle for young twins with rare heart condition
The man spoke to WCCO over the phone.
"I feel very blessed that something that could've turned out much more poorly has turned out the way it has, so I'm very grateful I was there," he said.
A bit of a silver lining for Nguyen's family is that in the hospital, doctors discovered a genetic heart condition that her children can now get tested for.
The surgeon also urges people to be aware of where AED defibrillators are located. He says they're "idiot-proof" to use and can be the difference between life and death in an emergency.
