Heroes honored for saving life of UAB doctor

On the night of April 9, 2018, UAB physician Dr. Swati Gulati went to Planet Fitness in Vestavia Hills, deciding to stick with her workout routine despite a busy day at work.

Gulati got on a treadmill, planning to run for 15 to 20 minutes before going home. As she began to run, she noticed her heart began to race faster than usual, and began to feel lightheaded.

“The next thing I remember is waking up in the ambulance,” Gulati said.

About the time Gulati began having problems on the treadmill, the gym’s general manager, Mona Garrett was doing her best to leave Planet Fitness on time.

“I was supposed to leave the gym at 7 p.m.,” Garrett said. “I was determined that day that I was going to leave on time, and I had one more little thing I wanted to do.”

The “one more little thing to do” was setting treadmills back down on the ground where previous customers had left them on an incline setting. The task kept Garrett at the gym roughly 20 minutes past 7 p.m., keeping her from her goal of leaving on time.

But her inability to leave on time helped save Gulati’s life.

As Garrett made her way down the row of treadmills, she noticed Gulati begin to fall off the treadmill, her chin hitting the machine. Gulati rolled off the treadmill and landed about two feet in front of Garrett.

“At that point, I quickly turned her over and pulled her head away from the rolling treadmill, and the first thing I thought was, ‘Let’s get the paramedics on the phone,’” Garrett said.

When Garrett turned around to instruct her staff, one member was already calling 911 while another, Stephen Bishop, ran to retrieve the gym’s Automated External Defibrillator (AED).

“At first, Dr. Gulati was making noises, moving around, and then she went very, very still; her color was blue-ish,” Garrett said.

After performing CPR on Gulati, the AED machine advised Bishop to administer shocks. Gulati, at just 30 years old, had gone into cardiac arrest.

“For a moment, there was just silence while we waited, and then she took a very deep breath on her own,” Garrett said.

Gulati was taken to a local hospital where doctors discovered she had blockages in her heart, requiring open-heart surgery.

But because of the quick work of the Planet Fitness staff, Gulati is alive, and was on hand June 29 to watch as Garrett, Bishop, other gym staff members, Elbert Burt, who provided the CPR training to Planet Fitness, and the Vestavia Hills Fire Department received a “Heartsaver Hero Award” from the American Heart Association.

Brady McLaughlin, with Trio Safety CPR and AED Solutions, which provides CPR training on behalf of the AHA, said Gulati is alive because of the staff of Planet Fitness and the VHFD following their training.

“This is only possible because the chain of survival was followed,” McLaughlin said.

Gulati said she’s lucky to be alive. As a physician who specializes in critical care and often works in the intensive care unit at UAB, she never thought she’d be on the other side of the operating table.

“It still sounds too good to be true to this day,” Gulati said. “The chance of people surviving a cardiac arrest that happens outside the hospital is 12 percent. So I’m one of those lucky [in the] 12 percent.”

After surviving the terrifying ordeal, Gulati said she has a “new outlook” on life.

“I value life more,” Gulati said. “… Now I’m looking for ways just to give back to the community and be more responsible and helpful. I think it has made me into even a more compassionate physician at my job. I can now relate to what patients go through.”

Gulati said she recently finished rehabilitation at UAB, and plans to start working out again in the next few weeks.