A life-saving act was performed at a longtime Erie County company.
The Plastek Group owners make it a mission to have monthly training or programs from the American Heart Association. Two employees were honored for saving the life of a co-worker and heart patient.
Allen McGrath says, "My heart stopped. I went into cardiac arrest." This life-saving December work day, Allen McGrath says, started with feeling... weird. He went on to say, "I thought, let me just lay my head on the table for a minute."
Allen says he collapsed, but not before calling for fellow co-worker James Peck—a trained first responder within the Plastek Company—who right away started performing CPR.
James says, "Everything's running through your mind. The paramedics, am I doing this the right way, is he going to be okay?"
Enter Karen Diluzio, a Plastek nurse called to the warehouse where it was all happening. Karen says, "I jumped in and did the CPR for a while, and then he took over because it's very tiring when you do it." Especially on one knee, which Karen was doing. "Yes," she says, "I had recently had knee replacement surgery and just come back to work and couldn't put any pressure on the knee, so I was doing it on one knee."
Karen and James worked together to save Allen, while another co-worker went to get an AED and someone stood outside with an orange flag to usher in the ambulance—a Plastek protocol.
All these efforts had company owner Dennis Prischak planning a pat on the back for the guardian angels who saved a life.
James and Karen were awarded the American Heart Association's Heart Saver Hero Award, presented by Gina Klofft, the Senior Heart Association Director for Erie, Crawford, and Warren Counties, at a company already vested in heart health.
Prichak says, "Minutes count, seconds count, so we're trying to close that last mile as much as we can."
And quick actions between this trio have created a lifelong bond.
Allen recounts, "They were the fighting, and without them, I wouldn't be here."
What's more, one of the lifesavers, James, was finishing up work in that warehouse that fateful day. He otherwise would not have been in that building.