Woman Suffers Mild Heart Attack During Senior Aerobics Class

It is the moment every physical fitness instructor is trained for but deep down hopes never happens –the moment when a member of the class looks as though something bad is about to happen. Something like a heart attack.

That moment came for me on Wednesday toward the end of my senior aerobics class at the Wainwright House.

I was scanning the room as instructors are trained to do while the class went through a series of stretch n’ flex exercises. I was making sure everyone was all right when I noticed someone beginning to breath with difficulty, her face starting to change color.

“Are you all right?” I asked her.

“No,” she said. “I’m having trouble breathing. I may be having a heart attack.”

In an instant, I stopped the class and the training started to kick in.

As a YMCA instructor you are trained in CPR and how to use an AED (automatic emergency defibrillator). The AED is in a first aid station in the same room as the aerobics studio and I was ready to use the AED or to give CPR. But if the person in trouble is still breathing, you identify yourself as someone trained in CPR, AED and rescue, get permission to help and you immediately call 911 from the nearby phone in the aerobics studio.

I did just that and called Rye Police.

We waited for police and emergency responders to arrive. I dismissed the class so the woman could have privacy and tried to convey a sense of calm while also asking her to describe what was wrong.

The woman, whose name I won’t reveal in order to protect her privacy, said she was a doctor and could tell that her heart was beating irregularly.

“I can feel my pulse racing. I think I’m having a reaction to a change in medication,” she said.

I asked the woman her age and she told me she was 90-years old. I also asked for the name of her doctor and contact information for her family.

She gave me the names of two doctors at Westchester Medical Group (WestMed) in Rye, mentioned she had a pacemaker installed within the last six months and was sure she was having an adverse reaction to a change in her medication.

As we were speaking, a policeman, Officer Michael Kenny, came rushing in the door carrying an oxygen tank, knelt beside her, and asked basically the same questions I had while beginning to give the patient oxygen.

“You have to remove your hat, please,” he said.

“I’d rather not,” she said. “My hair is a mess.’

“It would be easier to attach the oxygen mask,” he said. “And don’t worry about your hair, just look at mine.”

He was completely bald. She smiled and removed her hat. Her color started to return as the oxygen kicked in.

Now there was a semblance of normalcy in the room. The ailing doctor was sipping water when the EMS crew came rushing in. It was exactly eight minutes from the moment I made the 911 call.

The EMS ended up taking the woman to Greenwich Hospital. As they put her on a stretcher and took her into the ambulance, I told her I would call her doctors at WestMed and contact her family members, but she said she didn’t want to alarm her family, so she would call the family herself to make them aware of what had happened.

I ended up calling her doctors anyway and they said they would send someone from WestMed to Greenwich Hospital. I rushed out and gave that information to the EMS crew before they drove away.

I then went back to the phone and contacted her surgeon. By the time the ordeal was almost over little girls in ballet tutus were swirling around me, coming in for their ballet class at Wainwright. After that, I also called my supervisor at the Rye YMCA and told her I would be over there shortly to file an accident report.

When I finally got home, I called Greenwich Hospital see if the 90-year-old woman was okay. She had been checked in and was resting comfortably.