Bob Alspaugh adores his family. Relishes every second he gets to spend with them: Peggy, his wife of 57 years, daughter Catherine, sons Zachary and Justin, and grandchildren Zander and Monica. The 77-year-old part-time Carmel resident is particularly fond of time spent gathered around the dinner table, especially during the holidays.
"We've had a lot of good Christmases together," Alspaugh says. "I've gotten a lot of good Christmas gifts."
But nothing like the gift he received at the end of 2023. He tells the story best.
"On December 22, 2023, I went over to The Beach Club [at Pebble Beach], as I normally do. I swim three times a week. When I got there, the lanes were full, so I sat down, and there was a man sitting in a chaise next to me. A lane came available, and I said, 'Why don't you go ahead?' And he said, 'No, you go ahead.'"
Alspaugh began his laps.
"I don't know how long I was swimming. But based on my FitBit [exercise tracker], I was probably toward the end of my workout, which is normally about an hour. I don't remember anything. I was floating."
Face down.
"Somebody in my wife's water aerobics group saw me floating and said, ‘He’s not breathing.’ My wife starts screaming. They had to drag me out, a 210-pound guy, and get me on deck. There was a man there who was an EMT. And there was Bryce, who teaches swimming lessons at the club. And someone went to get an AED [automated external defibrillator]."
Elizabeth Nelson and Jordan Smith
That person with the AED was Elizabeth Nelson, a labor and delivery nurse at Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula's Family Birth Center, who just happened to be in the kiddie pool with her sister and a handful of kids.
Her sister's husband, Jordan Smith, a firefighter, was also there. And that man Alspaugh met on the chaise before he jumped in the pool? A cardiologist.
"Whatever you want to call it — divine intervention or just pure luck — I'll take them all," Alspaugh muses.
Nelson says a woman came by asking if there was a doctor at the club. They saw Alspaugh laying on his back on the pool deck. She and Jordan instantly joined the rescue effort.
"There were already four or five people there," Nelson says. "There was one man near me who said he was a doctor."
Everyone checked for a pulse. Nothing. Jordan started compressions. Then from somewhere, an AED arrived.
Nelson grabbed a nearby towel, dried Alspaugh's chest, then attached the sticky AED pads. After the machine ran its diagnostics, the moment arrived.
"Push button," the device said.
Nelson did. Once. Jordan did another round of compressions. At last, a pulse.
"Pretty amazing," Nelson says. "The earlier you start compressions, and the earlier you get an AED, the better the chances for a good outcome."
Our staff are embedded in the community we serve. Whether it’s providing care in a clinical setting or enjoying a day at the pool, we’re always here for our community.
— Dr. Steven Packer, President/CEO, Montage Health
Nobody knows for sure why Alspaugh had the cardiac arrest.
"All we know is my heart stopped beating," he says. "It just stopped."
Alspaugh was transferred to Community Hospital and later discharged. Subsequent tests didn't reveal any significant concerns. He's swimming again. Golfing. Walking. And, of course, celebrating those he loves the most.
One request, though, for this year's holidays.
"I'm wishing for a peaceful and uneventful family Christmas."
Beyond the hospital's walls
"Elizabeth Nelson is one of Montage Health's 3,000 amazing staff members making a difference in our community," says Dr. Steven Packer, Montage Health President and CEO. "She is a wonderful ambassador for the work we do and an example of how care and compassion extend far beyond the walls of our hospital."
Nelson's intervention in Alspaugh's collapse came slightly more than a year after Dr. Steven Lome, a Montage Medical Group cardiologist, saved the lives of two runners during the 2022 Monterey Bay Half Marathon. After one runner suffered a cardiac arrest on mile three of the marathon, Lome, who was also running the race, performed CPR until the runner received a lifesaving shock from an AED.
Lome continued running once the patient was safe, and as he crossed the finish line, he witnessed a second runner collapse from cardiac arrest. Lome administered CPR until the runner received a lifesaving shock from an AED provided by Community Hospital's nearby medical tent.
"Our staff are embedded in the community we serve," Packer says. "Whether it's providing care in a clinical setting or enjoying a day at the pool, we're always here for our community."
Learn about Tyler Heart Institute's AED program.
