Bill Keen works as a cardiologist at Kaiser Permanente in Encinitas, California. But on Sunday, January 5th, it was the local fitness center, and not the hospital, where he performed life-saving actions on a victim of cardiac arrest.
Keen was working out early Sunday morning and also watching the Chargers’ game on the gym TV’s when he heard two basketball players nearby asking people for medical assistance. One of their friends had collapsed and was unconscious. Keen rushed out to help and found the man unresponsive. He tried using CPR but to no avail, so he used the gym’s defibrillator. Thankfully, that shock was able to bring the man back to life.
Keen says of the experience, “I never got his name, but I spoke to his teenage son who, unbeknown to me, was standing there the whole time watching his dad …be resuscitated. What a horrible experience for this kid. He came up to me, looked me in the eye, shook my hand and thanked me. It’s times like this that I love being a doctor.”
