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It was the perfect New England fall Sunday for the annual American Heart Association golf tournament at the East Mountain Country Club in Westfield, Massachusetts.
Co-owners Ted and Mark Perez were holding a turkey shoot scramble in honor of their dad, who has experienced heart issues. Forty golfers, including Bob Genereux, Sr., were enjoying their favorite pastime while benefitting a cause near and dear to their hearts.
Mid-afternoon, Genereux was on the 10th green when he suddenly collapsed. Fellow golfers and Ted Perez immediately went into action.
When Perez arrived on the 10th green, Ron LeVoie, another golfer, had begun administering CPR to Genereux. "Bob was gray-purple in color," Perez said. When a check of Genereux's vital signs found nothing, Perez ran for the club's ZOLL AED Plus® automated external defibrillator.
Two more golfers, Paul Niznik, the owner of a local medical staffing company, and Frank Rice, took over CPR. Perez attached the AED electrodes to Genereux, and the unit recommended a shock. Finally, after a second shock, Genereux gasped.
A week and a half after his release from the hospital, Genereux was back on East Mountain's 10th green. But it was not to play golf—yet. He had called the local television reporters so he could tell his story.
"Every golf course should have an AED," said Genereux. "Golf courses aren't very close to fire stations. They are out in the country. It's all about time….Three people jumped in to help me with CPR and Ted got the AED. It was like a well-choreographed play and everything fell into place. I call them my guardian angels. I won the lottery. And I can't wait to get out on the course again!" "There are so many pieces to the puzzle," Niznik said. "To have the people who know what they are doing and how to do it, to have an AED—who expects an AED device? To have good response times for starting CPR…to the police and EMTs getting here so quickly. To have all of that in a row, I can't think of anything more a person could ask for. Every puzzle piece was there for him, and it was really something."