Avid runner Roland Melton planned to jog around White Rock Lake, but at the last minute, he decided the December air was a little chilly, so he hit the treadmill at the neighborhood YMCA instead. A short time into his workout, his chest and arms grew achy, so he slowed to a walk. “That’s the last thing I remember,” he says. Hours later, Melton regained consciousness in the Baylor emergency room, where he learned he’d suffered from a heart attack, which he would not have survived had it not been for a well-prepared and quick-witted YMCA employee. Isaac Lunger, a 23-year-old University of Texas at Dallas student, was working at the front desk, teaching a fellow White Rock YMCA employee to fix a spin bike, when he heard the thud. “I saw him there on the ground by the treadmill,” Lunger says. “I told the guy at the desk to call 911, and then my training kicked in.” He grabbed oxygen, and attached the defibrillator machine to Melton, who was no longer breathing. “I was shocked. I mean, this guy was in good shape. He’d been coming here the 6-plus years I’ve been working here,” Lunger says. “The Y requires [emergency response] training once a year, and that just took over, I guess. After it was all over I thought to myself, ‘What just happened?’” It took CPR and three shocks with the defibrillator to resume Melton’s breathing and pulse just before the paramedics arrived. Lunger says a nurse, who happened to be working out at the time, and other employees helped him save Melton’s life. “It was a life-changing experience for me, too,” Lunger says. “It’s something I know I will never forget.”
The White Rock YMCA starts its annual fundraising campaign this month. Visit whiterockymca.org for more information.
