PAIR HAILED FOR SAVING WOMAN WHO COLLAPSED
PALM BEACH GARDENS — Kamilla Soares was sitting down for a manicure when an alert popped up on her phone that someone at the Publix next door needed CPR, and the newly minted paramedic rushed to help.
Her actions and those of a Publix employee likely saved the life of the woman in her 30s who collapsed on the bathroom floor March 3. The woman has since been released from the hospital. It wasn’t clear to her rescuers what caused the medical episode.
Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue recognized the two women for their actions at a City Council meeting Thursday night.
Renee Gold, customer service manager at the Publix on Northlake Boulevard just west of Interstate 95, said a customer alerted her that someone had passed out in the restroom. She could see the woman on the floor but couldn’t get to her because the door was locked, she said.
“I had to pull her out from underneath. I had 911 on the phone, and they were telling me to check, ‘Was she breathing?’ ” Gold said. “She was gasping for air.”
The 911 dispatcher told Gold to start doing CPR, and she got in about four chest compressions before Soares came in and announced that she was a trained paramedic. Soares took over from there.
“I was relieved,” Gold said. The woman wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse when Soares arrived, she said. She performed CPR until Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue came and took over.
PulsePoint, a cellphone app, alerted Soares that someone nearby needed CPR.
If a user indicates he or she has been trained in CPR, the app sends a notification to that person when there is a cardiac emergency nearby. The app also directs the bystander to the closest automated external defibrillator.
People who experience cardiac arrest typically have the best outcomes if they receive CPR from a bystander before paramedics arrive, said Dr. Kenneth Scheppke, Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue’s medical director. When a person is in cardiac arrest, brain damage starts after four to six minutes without oxygen.
Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue offers free hands-only CPR classes at the fire station on Burns Road once a month.
Soares’ reaction was immediate, she said. “Gotta go, gotta go. I have to be there,” she said.
When all the hoopla ended, Soares went back to get her manicure.
Gold, a Loxahatchee resident, said she’s never seen a medical event “this severe,” in the 38 years she worked at Publix.
“You guys definitely went above and beyond,” said Cory Bessette, Palm Beach Gardens Fire Rescue Division Chief of EMS. “Whether you’re medically trained or not, you can do CPR.”