By: Pepper Fisher

SEQUIM – Clallam 3 Fire-Rescue officials are crediting the quick response of Costco employees for saving the life a customer over the weekend.

After a 55-year-old woman collapsed in front of the store at 9:30 Saturday morning, Assistant Fire Chief Dan Orr says 4 employees quickly assessed the patient and determined she needed CPR. They also grabbed the store’s defibrillator, which indicated the woman’s heart was in need of a shock. Orr says they shocked the woman twice and revived her heartbeat.

By the time the Clallam 3 First Responders arrived, the woman was lying on the ground, conscious and speaking.

The patient was transported to St. Michael Medical Center in Bremerton.

Assistant Chief Orr says the employees wish to remain anonymous, but had this message for them:

“On behalf of Fire District 3, we are so very appreciative of the folks who jumped in from Costco, used the Costco AED and actually saved somebody’s life. This doesn’t happen very often, and in these very uncertain times when people are very stressed out about getting too close and 6 feet of distancing and masks and all those things, for somebody to jump in and render aid to another human being means a great deal to us. And so we are very, very appreciative of what these folks have done, and thank them very much for their service.”