STEVE ALLISON never figured he'd need CPR.
After all, he was active, riding 12 miles each day from a bus stop in Kent to his job in Renton in preparation for his third Seattle-to-Portland bike ride.
Then, last June, Allison, a service supervisor at Cummins Diesel, arrived at work, changed his clothes, stepped into the office and, in his words, "did a face plant into the counter."
"I don't remember much of anything," says Allison, 54. "It was like someone turned out the lights."
Enter co-worker Rick Miller of Renton.
"He did CPR for about five minutes before the fire department arrived. Then they had to shock my heart three times," Allison says.
In the emergency room at Renton's Valley Medical Center, doctors told Allison he'd suffered a heart attack and needed a stent.
Two weeks later, Allison was back at work, grateful for the good luck that followed the bad.
Among them: that the attack occurred at his workplace, not while he was on the Interurban Trail, the route he usually takes to work.
"If it had happened there, I wouldn't be talking to you," he said this week.
Then there's the fact that Miller, who was scheduled to work a later shift, showed up early. Allison said Miller told him "something told him to come to work early that day."
"I collapsed, and he came over and did his magic."
Allison and Miller are guys' guys, not given to mushy sentimentality.
If anything, in conversation he and Miller downplay the episode.
"It's not like we're lovey-dovey or anything," Allison said.
"A guy doesn't just walk up and give another guy a hug. Rick's not that type. If I did, he'd probably punch me out."
Then he laughed, a hearty laugh of a man definitely delighted to be alive.
After the episode, Miller went on to train as a CPR instructor with the American Red Cross. Allison serves as a living reminder that CPR saves lives.
Katherine Boury of the Seattle office of the American Red Cross says roughly 47,000 people in King and Kitsap counties go through the Red Cross' CPR training each year.
You can be one of them.
On Feb. 28, the Red Cross will offer free CPR training at Renton Technical College as part of Renton Heart Month. The classes include sessions in American Sign Language and in Spanish, and are open to anyone. Register online at seattleredcross.org beginning Jan. 16 or at 206-736-3534 beginning Jan. 7.
It's all part of the Renton Emergency Preparedness Academy, a partnership of the city of Renton, the American Red Cross and Renton Technical College. The program offers classes ranging from ham radio-operator certification to babysitter training to first aid for pets to disaster preparedness, and is open to any interested person.
The academy's winter offerings include Introduction to Animal Rescue taught by Enumclaw's Gretchen McCallum, head of the Washington State Animal Response Team.
Deborah Needham, the city's emergency management director, will teach a class on how to safely prepare hot food during an emergency and which supplies to have on hand for an emergency. The academy also includes a class called Mapping Your Neighborhood, which teaches neighbors how to organize to help each other during a disaster.
The goal is to figure out who has resources they can share -- access to four-wheel drive vehicles, chain saws and food supplies -- with those who don't.
Economic lines divide what luxuries we accept as part of everyday living, Needham says. People facing day-to-day economic challenge are less likely to be prepared for an emergency than neighbors who aren't.
"In many ways, disasters are the great equalizers," Needham says. "They take you down to bare essentials. We're trying to identify people who have economic challenges, and then (link) them up with their neighbors."
As for Allison, he's back on his bike -- even in inclement weather.
"I rode my bike to work today," he said Monday, then laughed again.
"Nobody ever said I was bright."
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