S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. – A Lehigh Valley man is fully recovered after surviving a \u201cwidow-maker\u201d heart attack in his living room.<\/p>\n
Monday, the volunteer firefighters who resuscitated him received a lifesaving commendation from the township.<\/p>\n
On Jan. 18, Debbie Herlinger watched her husband Tim collapse. With no pulse and no breath, she had to act immediately.<\/p>\n
“Pulled him out of the chair because I knew I needed him flat,” said Debbie Herrlinger. “I got him and held him up so his head wouldn’t hit, and I started CPR. Greenawalds showed up. One of the firefighters picked me up, the police officer, and said, \u2018We got him, we got him.\u2019”<\/p>\n
Debbie’s CPR compressions bought critical time for the crew from Greenawalds Fire Rescue, who arrived knowing that in a cardiac arrest, every second counts.<\/p>\n
“Minutes truly do matter,” said Greenawalds Fire Chief Andrew Garger. “With a team effort, we kind of operate as a pit crew, and we all have different jobs, and we keep that high-quality CPR going for as long as possible.”<\/p>\n
The crew shocked Tim four times with an AED. Doctors later confirmed he had a 100% blockage in his main artery, known as a widow-maker.<\/p>\n
“I’m very fortunate. First, because I have her, but also because we live in a community with these wonderful, wonderful, giving people,” said Tim Herrlinger.<\/p>\n
Monday night, the township formally presented the crew with a lifesaving commendation \u2014 a well-deserved honor for the volunteer firehouse.<\/p>\n
“It’s not very often that we get to see somebody walk back into the firehouse after being in cardiac arrest,” said Chief Garger. “It’s very rewarding. We have a very supportive board of commissioners in the township, but it’s even more special when they get to see the results of the support that they give us and have a good outcome like we did here.”<\/p>\n
Tim walked in completely healthy, with a little bit of soreness and a whole lot of gratitude.<\/p>\n
“I’m kind of surprised that I’m here. I’m glad I’m here,” said Tim. “Four cracked, one broken rib. But I’m very happy, and thank you for breaking my ribs, dear.”<\/p>\n
Watch a video or take a CPR class \u2014 that is the biggest takeaway from both the fire chief and Herrlinger family, saying that every minute helps.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"S. WHITEHALL TWP., Pa. – A Lehigh Valley man is fully recovered after surviving a \u201cwidow-maker\u201d heart attack…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":220071,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[85552,119,121,120,62417,95925,2347,22395,95924,63610,812,40741,57600],"class_list":["post-220136","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-aed","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-cardiac-arrest","tag-commendation","tag-community-support","tag-cpr","tag-greenawalds-fire-rescue","tag-heart-attack","tag-rescue","tag-survival","tag-volunteer-firefighters"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220136","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220136"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220136\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/220071"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220136"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220136"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220136"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}