Georgia heart attack survivor defies the odds

COWETA COUNTY, Ga. - Tray Baggarly beat incredible odds and survived, according to his cardiologist, Dr. Tesfaye Telila who says 9 out 10 people who experience cardiac arrest outside of a hospital die.

Piedmont Newnan team effort

What we know:

A co-worker, an EMS crew and a team at a Piedmont Newnan Hospital Heart cath lab are credited with the persistence that paid off and saved Baggarly’s life.  He returned to the hospital two weeks later to thank the cath lab and Dr. Telila in an emotional reunion.

"It was. It was  and I get emotional talking about it now, but it was a team of people, and they were so excited to see me," says Baggarly.

By the numbers:

"You know, nine out of ten cardiac arrests, out-of-hospital cardiac arrests, actually don’t make it. Mostly because, you know, your life, your survival, depends on the person who is next to you," says Dr. Telila.  He said that that person only has four to six minutes to save the patient's brain from oxygen deprivation.

A hero's story

What they're saying:

And the man next to Tray that day was his co-worker, Alan Smith. Both work at the Coweta County Fairgrounds, where Tray is the Director of Event Services. Alan is a retired firefighter, trained in CPR and the use of an AED.

"He got the AED off the wall, which hangs right outside my office, and... he worked on me for 20 or so minutes from what I understand until the ambulance got there," Baggerly recalls.

While it’s easy to credit Tray’s Piedmont healthcare team, Dr. Telila says Smith is the real hero of this story: knowledge, training, and fearless quick action.

At the hospital

Local perspective:

"We actually took him to the cath lab while doing CPR, which, you know, usually we don’t do that, but just given the fact that he’s young and also we, you know, we got a little emotional hearing his story, he has kids and all those things. And then on the table, we had to shock him 16 times," says Dr. Telila.

Sixteen times on the table, once at the fairgrounds, and once in the ambulance—a total of 18 times his heart was defibrillated. Piedmont Newnan provided actual photos to FOX 5 of Tray in the cath lab, where Dr. Telila unblocked his "widowmaker," that most lethal of all occlusions.

What's next:

Tray is not back to work yet, but soon. Piedmont Newnan plans to honor Smith with a community hero award this month. Coweta County government has pledged to expand the number of AEDs in county-owned  buildings to improve someone else's odds in the future.