THE
HEALING EFFECT
OF
‘PADDLES’ SAVED
THIS PICKLEBALLER’S
I
LIFE
t was a day unlike any other
in south New Jersey. Despite
being unseasonably warm and
humid for late September,
63-year-old Eric Schmetterling
and a few of his friends gathered
at Decou Park in Cherry Hill at 7
a.m. for their customary play on
the pickleball court. Known as
South Jersey Pickleball Meetup,
for two hours Eric and his buddies
rallied, dinked, hit volley winners
and competed at a high level. Eric
was soaked in sweat when play was
over at 9 a.m.
50
While exiting the court, Eric felt dizzy and quickly tried to grab the fence
to steady himself. “I was lucky my friend Mike was there to stop my fall, or I
could have easily hit my head and face,” he says. He was also lucky because
just two courts away was Annemarie McCartney, a pediatric nurse manager
who had worked in the local Jefferson Hospital for nearly 20 years, and she
heard their screams for help. “I looked in the direction of where they were
yelling, and saw Eric laying on the court. I ran over to the listless body and
asked someone to call 9-1-1. I checked for a pulse; there was no pulse and he
was looking gray,” recalled Annemarie. “I started chest compressions within
30 seconds of checking on Eric. A friend of his started chest compressions
and mouth-to-mouth. There were five of us who continued basic life support
for seven minutes until the paramedics arrived.”
Aside from Annemarie, the other four individuals were Jeff Lorman, Hezi
Nahum, Chai Chuenmark and Avi Yehuda. Seeing the events unfolding
from an adjacent soccer field, a doctor ran over along with a woman who
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