By Gary Demuth
The Salina Journal
SALINA, Kan. — After running around the track a couple of times during his regular early morning workout at the Salina Family YMCA, Craig Danielson decided to do a few pull-ups.
After running around the track a couple of times during his regular early morning workout at the Salina Family YMCA, Craig Danielson decided to do a few pull-ups.
As the 56-year-old Salina man began to use a pull-up machine in the YMCA’s Health and Wellness Center, he suddenly fell face forward into the machine, bruising his forehead.
But Danielson’s bruised head was the least of his concerns; his heart had stopped and he was moments from death.
He most likely would have died if not for the actions of a clinical exercise physiologist also working out that morning who not only had vital CPR training but recently had finished an advanced cardiovascular life support class.
Adrienne Gapter knew how to use a defibrillator to restart Danielson’s heart and keep it going until paramedics could arrive. And luckily, a defibrillator was mounted on the south wall of the gym.
Although Danielson wasn’t breathing and had no pulse, Gapter was determined to do all she could to save his life.
“I absolutely had no fear or hesitation,” said Gapter, a clinical exercise physiologist at COMCARE Imaging Center, 617 E. Elm, and also a CPR instructor. “This was something I was trained to do. I felt like I was working through the Lord.”