New York lifeguards save man after collapsing on beach
David Plotkin, left, who was saved by lifeguards, and town of East Hampton head lifeguard John Ryan Jr. joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" to discuss saving Plotkin, who was without a pulse for 12 minutes.
Lifeguards in New York saved a man who collapsed during a recent beach bike ride and had an undetectable pulse for 12 minutes.
David Plotkin, 50, joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" on Sunday morning to discuss what he could recall from his fall on July 30 of this year.
"It was a beautiful Saturday morning," Plotkin said during a televised interview.
"I went for my routine beach bike ride with a good friend of mine," he continued. "It’s about an hour long, but it was anything but an hour-long bike ride."
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Plotkin said he and his friends had biked for 30 minutes and had already passed their turnaround point when he collapsed not far from a lifeguard station in Atlantic Beach.
New York resident David Plotkin collapsed during a beach bike ride in East Hampton. He shared his story with "Fox and Friends Weekend." (Fox News Media)
"I was about 20 yards east of the lifeguard stand," Plotkin told "Fox & Friends Weekend."
"I collapsed right in front of a retired police officer. He and his wife saw me down and ran over."
Plotkin said he wasn’t breathing — so the couple started CPR while bystanders got the lifeguard team.
Two lifeguards responded to the scene, according to Plotkin.
"They sprung into action and brought the defibrillators over, and they were working on me for 30 minutes," Plotkin said.
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John Ryan Jr., the lead lifeguard in the town of East Hampton, also joined "Fox & Friends Weekend" to discuss the lifesaving measures his team took to save Plotkin.
The lifeguards delivered two shocks from the defibrillator and continued CPR on Plotkin for 12 minutes.
Town of East Hampton lifeguard James Ryan Jr. told "Fox and Friends Weekend" that his team focused on administering lifesaving CPR to David Plotkin in hopes of getting Plotkin's pulse to start again. (Fox News Media)
Plotkin didn’t have a readable pulse at the time, Ryan confirmed.
"Throughout the whole time, after those first two shocks, [the defibrillator] analyzed and said, ‘No shock advised,’" Ryan recalled.
"And at that point, the heart was not beating, so we continued CPR throughout the whole process [and waited] to transport him off to a waiting ambulance."
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Ryan said Plotkin’s collapse is a "very rare" situation in the world of lifeguarding.
In his own words, Ryan said, "We know that once the heart stops, our job is to continue to do the CPR to continue to circulate oxygen in the blood to the organs in hopes that we can get him to the waiting ambulance, and then they can hopefully administer some drugs that might put the heart into fibrillation and then shock it to get a regular heartbeat."
David Plotkin, left, "Fox and Friends Weekend" co-host Rachel Campos-Duffy, and lead lifeguard James Ryan discussed how lifesaving measures such as CPR can help blood flow in case of collapse. (Fox News Media)
Ryan noted that his lifeguards swapped in and out to do two minutes of CPR and compressions.
He said 15 lifeguards eventually arrived at the scene and helped with compressions and ventilations.
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"It takes a lot out of you," Ryan said.
"Your adrenalin is pumping, and you’re doing CPR, and we have to switch in and out because if you’re not doing effective CPR, the blood flow is not circulating as it should be."
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