When retired firefighter Troy Souza walked into the Flying Pickle in Meridian, Idaho, on Father’s Day weekend, he didn’t expect his decades of first-responder training to be called upon again — or that his quick response would help save a stranger’s life.

Troy, retired after 37 years as a firefighter in Santa Cruz, Calif., had just finished a long morning of pickleball and was getting ready to leave when another group asked him to play. He finished that game and then paused to watch pickleball on the lounge TV — a small decision that proved critical.

On a nearby court, Chuck Seeley, 70, was suffering a heart attack.

“I had played a couple games and then the last game started feeling really tired, and I thought I might faint,” Chuck said. “Then I collapsed.”

A bystander grabbed an AED, and Troy followed instinctively.

“I got in there and opened the AED up, turned it on, found some shears, cut Chuck’s shirt … and threw the pads on just to see if he was in a shockable rhythm,” Troy said. “The machine said it warranted a shock. So I just made sure we got back, and it delivered a shock. And I started CPR.”

Souza kept applying compressions until medics arrived.

“I probably did it for maybe a minute and a half and the machine wanted to reassess, so it delivered a second shock,” he said. “Probably about four minutes went by … the medics arrived, and I identified myself as a retired fireman. He said just stay on the compressions, you’re doing fine.”

After several more shocks Chuck regained consciousness. He was taken to St. Luke’s Meridian Hospital and later transferred to St. Luke’s in downtown Boise for bypass surgery.

For his calm response and heroic actions, Troy recently received an American Red Cross Lifesaving Award.

“It feels good,” he said. “It’s the first time I’ve done it as a lay person since I’ve been retired. There was never any doubt of what I should do when I saw the man laying on the ground. It was like autopilot — I just did it.”

And he urged others to get trained.

 “I would highly encourage people to take a CPR class, absolutely,” Troy said. “Especially with an AED — there’s so many of them around these days that could make a huge difference in somebody living or dying. Once you take a class, you realize it’s not a difficult thing to do, and you can really make a difference on someone’s life.”

Now recovered, Chuck is back at home in Atlanta, walking seven miles a day, playing golf and making plans to return to the pickleball court.

“I call it the best worst luck you can possibly have,” he said. “The fact that I was just a few minutes from the hospital, Troy happened to be there, and people got there quickly. It was pretty amazing when I think about it. I’m extremely grateful.”

LEARN LIFESAVING SKILLS

Red Cross offers a wide range of health and safety classes from CPR and first aid to swimming safety and babysitting training. Learn more and sign up for a class today at redcross.org/takeaclass.