They looked over and noticed that the man didn’t look well. He was still sitting in the chair, but when they went over to him, they noticed his pupils were dilated. They checked for a pulse. Not finding any, they lowered him to the floor and started administering CPR.

“Certainly, we do this kind of thing all the time, but in the emergency department, we have an entire team and all the equipment we would need to address something like this,” Dr. Edwards said. “I used to be an EMT and a paramedic, so for me, it was just rolling back to basic CPR that we teach the public. Sure, there were three highly-trained physicians right there, but it still comes down to basic life support – CPR, calling 911 and having an AED. It was very nice that he had a near-immediate response. He started talking to us and was lucid and coherent. That was quite refreshing.”

Mr. Granelli spent a week at Denver Health and returned home to North Carolina, where he continued his recovery. He said the gratitude he has for the physicians on the scene at the convention center is rivaled only by the care received from Denver Health before leaving.

“Two doctors there in particular, Dr. (Chris ) Colwell and Dr. (Joel) Garcia, were great,” he said. “I can’t say enough about them, and the doctors at the café. I can’t thank them enough.”

And there’s one other thing that Mr. Granelli points out.

“Not that it means anything, that’s not why I’m saying it, but I remember sitting at the café, and I noticed an AED on the wall across from me,” he said. “That couldn’t have been more than a few minutes before it happened.”