You Could Be the Next Person at UNM to Save a Life

George Tru­jeque

George Tru­jeque, the direc­tor of UNM Golf Courses knows that trou­ble can hap­pen any­where, at any time. He put his Car­dio Pul­monary Resus­ci­ta­tion (CPR) train­ing to use last month when a man watch­ing his grand­son play the 14th hole at UNM’s Cham­pi­onship Golf Course col­lapsed into a cart.

A quick think­ing coach jumped into the cart and drove it to the club­house while call­ing for help. Trujeque was ready with an Auto­mated Exter­nal Defib­ril­la­tor. He and the coach laid the man out in the club­house but his pulse was weak and erratic. Tru­jeque shocked the man’s heart and he began CPR.

When para­medics arrived, they took over the CPR and rushed the man to a local hos­pi­tal where doc­tors put him into a med­ically induced coma to try to con­tain the damage. Three weeks later, the man called the golf course and asked Tru­jeque for a tee time. The man was jok­ing – he still faces heart surgery, but he knows Tru­jeque had a big part in his survival.

Tru­jeque says a golf course is a place you might expect some­one to have a heart attack. That’s why he has made spe­cial efforts to train his staff and even vol­un­teers who work at the golf course as player assistants. Some of the vol­un­teers will be going to train­ing offered on Sat­ur­day, June 23 at a Heart Start event at John­son Center’s South Gym.

The train­ing is free. Anyone can learn CPR and how to use an Auto­mated Exter­nal Defib­ril­la­tor (AED). Trujeque says hav­ing the AED device at the club­house made a huge dif­fer­ence to him because it tells the user exactly what to do and even sets a rhythm for the CPR chest compressions.   

“You know, we’re more sus­cep­ti­ble out here because it’s a more phys­i­cally demand­ing area than say Pope­joy Hall or any­thing like that,” said Trujeque. “But it can hap­pen anywhere. It can hap­pen at the Pit where you are walk­ing up those stairs.”

UNM is encour­ag­ing every­one who is inter­ested to attend the free ses­sions for Project Heart Start. Three ses­sions will be offered on Sat­ur­day, June 23 at 8 a.m., at 9 a.m., and at 10 a.m.  Any­one with ques­tions can call (505) 843‑2814 or go to the web­site at Project Heart Start.

Media con­tact: Karen Went­worth (505) 277‑5627; email: kwent2@unm.edu