‘Thank you just isn’t enough’: Beaufort man meets first responders, other who saved his life

Sofia Sanchez

When 70-year-old Mike Kirby went into cardiac arrest nearly a month ago while exercising at Planet Fitness in Beaufort, he left in an ambulance.

On Tuesday, while at the gym to meet the group of first responders who saved him, he got to leave in a fire truck.

“Thank you, not just for me, but for all you do for this community,” Kirby said before the two paramedics, an off-duty Beaufort/Port Royal firefighter and a gym employee who resuscitated him Jan. 3 received life-saving awards from the Fire Department and “thank you” cookies from the Kirby family.

“All the training you do made a difference for me and it does for others, too,” Kirby said.

Lt. Adam Jordan, who was at the gym on his day off the day Kirby went into cardiac arrest previously told the Island Packet and Beaufort Gazette that he was nearing the end of his workout when his wife told him, “I think someone is hurt.” Jordan immediately sprang into action and performed CPR on Kirby while Don Martz, a Planet Fitness employee, grabbed the gym’s automated external defibrillator (AED).

“I talked to him a little bit. I said, ‘Welcome back,’” Jordan previously told the newspapers. “He responded back to me.”

Mike Kirby, 70, of Beaufort, is a Planet Fitness regular who went into cardiac arrest while working out on Jan. 3 and was saved by off-duty City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department firefighter, Lt. Adam Jordan, paramedic David Evans and gym employee Don Martz.
Mike Kirby, 70, of Beaufort, is a Planet Fitness regular who went into cardiac arrest while working out on Jan. 3 and was saved by off-duty City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department firefighter, Lt. Adam Jordan, paramedic David Evans and gym employee Don Martz.

‘Gratitude took over’

Kirby was rushed to the hospital and received treatment at the Medical University of South Carolina in Charleston where, according to his wife, Allison Kirby, surgeons installed an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD), a battery-operated machine that can detect irregular heart rhythms.

Kirby’s incident happened the morning after an NFL football player, Damar Hamlin with the Buffalo Bills, collapsed from cardiac arrest on the field in Cincinnati during a game. Her husband’s cardiac arrest happening so close to Hamlin’s, which garnered national media attention, made it “so real and shows this can happen to anyone,” Allison Kirby said.

Lt. David Evans, Lt. Adam Jordan and Don Martz pose for a picture at the Beaufort gym where they saved a man who had gone into cardiac arrest Tuesday.
Lt. David Evans, Lt. Adam Jordan and Don Martz pose for a picture at the Beaufort gym where they saved a man who had gone into cardiac arrest Tuesday.

“It’s been very emotional meeting them (first responders),” Allison Kirby said Tuesday. “It’s surreal and feels like it didn’t happen. It seems so long ago now.”

For the family, “gratitude took over” and any “complications” or stressors became secondary once they knew he was going to recover, said Allison Kirby’s mother, Donna Mical.

“We’re looking for something more than thank you because thank you just isn’t enough,” Mical said.

Firefighters and first responders from the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department posed with Mike Kirby and his family Tuesday in front of the gym where they saved Kirby earlier this month.
Firefighters and first responders from the City of Beaufort/Town of Port Royal Fire Department posed with Mike Kirby and his family Tuesday in front of the gym where they saved Kirby earlier this month.

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