Emily: Almost dies on death row

Emily’s story

Emily Counter is young fit health conscious woman in her early 20’s. She is also lucky to be alive.  Had it not been for the actions of a couple of quick thinking heroes and a defibrillator, she wouldn’t have been around to celebrate her 21st birthday.

Emily who was then 20 years old was working out on a rowing machine in her local Anytime Fitness gym at Noosa. She had recently changed gyms and was enjoying her exercise regime but on this particular day, working on the rowing machine was the last thing she remembered.

By contrast Aeron Petterson the owner of the gym remembers the day very well.

"One of the young members came running to me and said 'something's happened to a girl',” Aeron said, “Em was just lying on the ground. She just wouldn't respond.”

Aeron was joined by gym member Ben Duffy who sprang into action and started performing CPR on Emily as Aeron rushed to get the gym’s defibrillator. Even though Aeron says he was in a state of panic himself, the defibrillator was so simple to use that he knew exactly what to do.

"I pressed the shock button and her body sort of jumped off the ground like it was in the movies,” he said.

By using CPR and the defibrillator, Ben and Aeron managed to keep Emily alive until the paramedics arrived and took over.

Emily was in a coma for three days. She was diagnosed with a rare heart condition called Bland-White-Garland Syndrome (BWGS) an anomaly on the left side of her heart.  Without surgical repair, most children die at infancy yet Emily had lived for 20 years with no knowledge of her potentially lethal heart condition.

"I was getting heart pain and I was struggling breathing when I was running, way before I had this happen, and I thought I just wasn't fit enough,” she laughs.

A week after the incident, Emily was taken to The Prince Charles Hospital in Brisbane to undergo open heart surgery to fix her anomaly.

Today she is fully recovered. ""I've got a completely replumbed heart now, so it's basically like a brand new heart. I just feel like Wonder Woman,”she says.

000 - Push - Shock

Emily survived because of the prompt action of Ben and Aeron and because all Anytime Fitness gyms across Australia have defibrillators.

"Thank God we had it. That thing is just absolutely brilliant and was able to save her life,” Aeron said.

Aeron said the hospital’s intensive care unit team commented on how well the CPR process was done, the speed of making the 000 call, removal of obstacles, compressions, stability of the head and correct use of the defibrillator.

Now, Emily wants to see defibrillators in every single gym.” If I’d had this at my old gym then I probably wouldn’t be alive,” she says.

Struggling to find the words to thank the guys who resuscitated her, Emily said without them she would not be here today.

"It was just amazing, the help that they gave me,” she said, “a massive thank you, to Aaron and Ben for giving CPR and jumping straight into it, without hesitating.”

"It's just so great to be going to a gym with these type of people.”