BAMC Soldier helps save man at JBSA-Randolph gym

JOINT BASE SAN ANTONIO, Texas -- When working out at the gym the last thing on your mind is using your medical training to help save someone's life, but that's exactly what happened to one BAMC Soldier recently.

Army Capt. Matthew Reggio, a student registered nurse anesthetist who works at Brooke Army Medical Center, was about two miles into his run at the Rambler Fitness Center on Joint Base San Antonio-Randolph when he heard someone behind him yelling for help. He turned to find a women standing over a man who had collapsed to the floor.

At first, we thought he was having a seizure but soon realized he was in cardiac arrest, Reggio said. "He didn't have a pulse."

They started doing chest compressions until someone brought the gym's automated external defibrillator.

"Once the AED came we put that on him and it called for a shock," he said. "We had to shock him twice and continued doing CPR until emergency medical services got there."

"Emergency medical personnel had to shock him four more times, but he actually woke up at that point," Reggio said. "We could see him raising his hands and talking."

After the excitement, Reggio realized the women who helped the man was his wife's commander, Air Force Col. Dana James, the commander of the JBSA-Randolph Clinic.

"I've done this numerous times inside the hospital, but never actually had to do it outside of the hospital," he said. "It just clicked. I knew exactly what I had to do."

"I'm glad the gentleman survived," he concluded.