EAST PROVIDENCE — If not for exemplary efforts of East Providence Firefighters and a few of his fellow Zoll Medical Corporation employees, it is unlikely Paul Mendes would still be alive.

Late last year, Mr. Mendes, 60 and Zoll draftsman, collapsed in the hallway of the company’s plant located in Narragansett Industrial Park on the East Providence-Pawtucket line. It was then that three of his co-workers — Deb Mitchell, David Eddy and Edna Rojas — began what eventually proved to be live-saving procedures using the very equipment they help build each day.

Ms. Mitchell, an engineering documentation coordinator who is certified in the CPR/AED program at Zoll Bio-Detek, was first at the scene, finding Mr. Mendes collapsed in a hallway. According to accounts of the event, she yelled for someone to call 911 as she and another co-worker turned him on his back. She then began CPR.

Mr. Eddy, a product development engineer who is also trained in CPR, took over administering chest compressions to the beat of the Bee Gee’s hit “Stayin’ Alive,” known to many as the theme music for the American Heart Association's 'Keep The Beat' campaign. Ms. Rojas, another employee certified in CPR and a R&D technologist, retrieved one of the company’s AED Plus (automated external defibrillator) machines off a nearby wall, applied electrodes also manufactured there and administered defibrillation shocks.

The actions of the trio, trained in CPR though with no formal medical training, showed how “ordinary people” can become “unexpected heroes.”

“Sustaining high-quality CPR is not easy,” Mr. Eddy recalled. “I had sweat dripping down, but adrenaline kicked in to help manage the task at hand, and the beat of the song kept me on track to the optimum CPR rhythm of 100 chest compressions per minute.”

East Providence Fire Department personnel arrived some seven minutes after receiving the distress call. Firefighters Jason Cordeiro, Joel Kingman, Adam Christina and Captain Frederick McDonald helped ready Mr. Mendes for transport to hospital, but he re-arrested as he was being loaded into the ambulance. Firefighters shocked Mr. Mendes for what was a fourth time before being able to transport.

“This was a text book response to sudden cardiac arrest. Everything fell perfectly into place,” said Captain John H. Potvin, the EPFD Director of Emergency Medical Services.

Added EPFD Chief Oscar Elmasian, “I’m very proud of what our guys did in their response to this particular instance, but it’s also an example of the job this department does every day. I’m also very proud of the three individuals who took the initiative to administer CPR and assisted us. It’s shows the importance of lay people knowing the procedure.”

Several months later, Mr. Mendes is now back at work full time. He has been fitted with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) and remains grateful to his co-workers and the East Providence EMTs who helped save his life.

“I live alone. If this had happened at home or in my car, I wouldn’t be here today,” Mr. Mendes said.

The seven heroes were honored last week as part of Zoll’s recognition of February being “Heart Month.” According to statistics, out-of-hospital survival from sudden cardiac arrest (SCA), which is an abrupt disruption of the heart’s function causes a lack of blood flow to vital organs, is less than 10 percent. Timing is critical to survival. If a victim does not receive CPR and early defibrillation from an AED, chances of survival decrease a further 10 percent with each passing minute. SCA is the leading cause of unexpected death in the U.S. affecting more than 350,000 people annually.

— With contributions by Mike Rego