PINELLAS COUNTY, Fla. — On a delightful Friday afternoon, Stan Stankovich returned to the pickleball courts at Walter Fuller Park in St. Petersburg. Unfortunately, regardless that the elements was once highest for pickleball, he wasn’t there to play.
Instead, he was once there to thank a particular crew of folks for a particular second he virtually did not get.
“I see friends, I see some pickleball competitors, I see family, but mostly, I see heroes,” he mentioned.
Three Mondays in the past, he was once taking part in pickleball on the park. One second, he was once scoring issues. The subsequent second, he was once at the flooring subconscious.
“My state of mind was blissful sleep. Unconsciousness. Rest,” he mentioned, his reminiscence of the instant foggy. “I don’t know.”
It turns out he was once having a cardiac tournament.
Stankovich were given fortunate. Another pickleball player and pal, Nathan Stine, did not waste a second to get started chest compressions that he remembered from the CPR coaching he gained years in the past when he was once a boulevard sweeper for the City of St. Pete.
“Was there ever a moment you thought you were going to lose him?” ABC Action News requested Stine.
“Actually, there were (two),” he spoke back.
Moments later, alternatively, Stan were given fortunate once more. Other heroes got here to Stine’s support.
Fellow pickleball avid gamers had rushed to the adjoining town pool and taken again lifeguard Ozzy Figueroa with an AED.
“Honestly didn’t have much to really think about in the moment. It was more of a flight or fight reaction — just act without thinking, you know,” he mentioned.
It was once the primary time Figueroa, a 25-year-old welding scholar at Pinellas Technical College, had used the AED on a actual particular person, however in accordance to Figueroa, he stored a degree head and remembered his coaching.
In that second of reality, he revived Stan’s center.
“Very glad that it was a great outcome from it, but just shows that the training does produce the outcome — a good outcome,” Figueroa mentioned.
Friday, Stankovich reunited with the ones lifesavers — Stine and Figueroa — and the EMTs who rushed him to HCA Florida Northside Hospital, the place he mentioned health facility body of workers took just right care of him and implanted a small defibrillator close to his center.
To his spouse, Laura Stankovich, the instant of reunion was once greater than outstanding. It was once a blessing.
“The biggest question for us was, ‘Was this, you know, intervention from up above?’ And we both believe that it was,” she mentioned.
Her husband, Stan, now hopes extra folks will turn out to be CPR/AED educated and extra AEDs can be put in throughout Tampa Bay.
Soon, he’s going to have the all-clear from his physician to get started taking part in pickleball once more, and he intends to achieve this.
Stine, who regularly performs towards his just right pal Stankovich will display no mercy.
“You know, that’s a situational thing,” he smiled. “It all depends on the score.”
To find a CPR/AED class in Florida, visit the RedCross online.