MANATEE – In December Wendell Thorne suffers a heart attack. He survived thanks to the help of Manatee County EMTs and one special nurse performing CPR.
Now he’s opening his business for CPR classes to educate those who want to know how to save a life.
Wendell Throne has been cutting hair for nearly two decades, he’s written songs, written books and was even a lawyer at one point. However Dec 12th is date he will never forget.
“That morning I really had what I thought was gas pain in my chest,” Thorne said.
But his chest pain became more severe. “I was having real bad symptoms and knew I was having a heart attack,” he said.
That’s when Thorne drove himself a couple of streets away to an urgent care clinic where he went into cardiac arrest.
“While they were pulling him into the ambulance his eyes rolled to the back so we knew right there OKAY he’s going into cardiac arrest,” said Deliana Marte.
Marte is a medical assistant at Ellenton Urgent Care. She’s the nurse that performed the lifesaving CPR on Thorne. “Doing the CPR at that time is what saved his life,” said Marte.
Now Thorne is recovering from his heart attack and decided to partner with Manatee County EMT to teach other CPR. “So I thought well after this all came through and said and done, I thought well what can I you know, so I thought we can do a CPR class here,” said Thorne.
More than a dozen people showed up including the EMTs who transported Throne to the hospital. Thorne hopes these classes teach others how to save a life.
“I hope people just go away with the confidence knowing that if their spouse or friend or somebody stranger in the grocery store goes down with a heart attack, that they can at least know how to administer until the medical professionals can arrive,” said Thorne.
Depending on the success of Thursday night’s class Thorne says he plans on holding CPR classes at least once a month in the future.
