Eileen Harvey was running errands at the Giant Eagle in Buffalo Plaza around 5:30 p.m. on Jan. 13. She was buying dog treats and a TV dinner.
Then she collapsed in the checkout line.
“Apparently, I got to the register and I paid for it, but I never got any farther,” Harvey said, explaining that she doesn’t remember that evening very well. “I guess I had heart failure and went down.”
Three Giant Eagle employees — Cecilia Ottenweller, Andrew Chick and Dayna Keyes — were there to help.
Chick, who works as a pharmacist at the Giant Eagle store, said someone called him over when Harvey collapsed. When he reached Harvey, he quickly determined she wasn’t breathing and had no pulse.
Ottenweller, Chick and Keyes “sprung into action,” Freeport EMS Director Christopher O’Leath said. They began performing CPR and located an automated external defibrillator, or AED, in the store.
As a pharmacist, Chick was trained in CPR and AED — though he said he had never used an AED in a real-life situation before.
“They followed the prompts from the AED and rapidly initiated a defibrillation,” O’Leath wrote in a letter commending their lifesaving efforts.
“A lot happened in a few minutes,” Chick said. “It was pretty quick, hectic.”
The three employees resuscitated the patient, O’Leath said. By the time the ambulance crew arrived, Harvey was alert and talking.
“As a result of their quick thinking and immediate actions, these three people made a difference and saved the life of a patient,” O’Leath said. “They restored the patient’s heartbeat prior to EMS arrival and allowed time for the paramedics to initiate medical interventions and ultimately, transfer the patient to the hospital.”
Harvey’s doctors told her that if there hadn’t been anyone there to help her, she might not have survived.
“The employees saved my life,” she said. “If it weren’t for those three people at Giant Eagle, I wouldn’t here today.”
Chick said “it meant a lot” to be able to help Harvey. People have commended his actions to save a stranger, but Chick said it didn’t matter whether or not he knew her. He just wanted to help.
“That’s a perfect stranger to me, but to someone, that’s a mother and a grandmother and a sister,” he said. “If something like that happened to one of my family members, I would want someone to do the same thing. Even though she’s a stranger to me, she’s not a stranger to a lot of people. I don’t have to know her to want to help.”
Harvey, 79, of Buffalo Township, said she’s now “doing pretty good” and is grateful to be alive.
She said she frequents the Buffalo Plaza Giant Eagle and will be sure to say hello to the workers who saved her life when she’s shopping.
“At Giant Eagle, we are committed to being a caring neighbor and always striving to do the right thing for our guests and communities,” Giant Eagle spokesperson Dick Roberts said. “We are incredibly proud of our Buffalo Plaza Team Members who stepped up to assist a guest who was experiencing a medical emergency while visiting our store and are thankful that their swift action contributed to a positive outcome for the guest.”
Buffalo Township officials recognized recognized Ottenweller, Chick and Keyes for their work to save their customer’s life at a supervisors meeting in June.
Harvey was there to hand them plaques and certificates recognizing their lifesaving work.
Though Chick said they didn’t need any recognition, he said he was happy to see Harvey doing well.
“It was very nice to be able to meet them and give them a hug,” Harvey said. “I just thank God there are people out there like that who are willing to do that, to help someone.”
