Green is a life saver at Wildernesse Golf Club

The quick-thinking actions of David Green, head professional at Wildernesse Golf Club, helped save the life of club member Garett Endenburg.

In early September, 53-year-old Endenburg was on the seventh tee with his son and two friends when he complained of feeling unwell and had chest pains.

Poor reception meant their mobile phones didn’t work, but a greenkeeper was able to drive Endenburg to the club’s pro shop where, after calling the emergency services, Green took charge of the situation.

“Within two minutes of Garett walking into the pro shop, he’d collapsed,” explained Green. “Once someone’s collapsed, you’ve got an eight-minute window to save their life and that’s when my training kicked in.

“By the time we’d retrieved the defibrillator from the clubhouse, Garett had no pulse. We cleared his airway and fired up the defibrillator while checking Garett for a heartbeat. There wasn’t one, so the red light came on and we shocked Garett’s heart to start pumping blood again and applied CPR - cardiopulmonary resuscitation.”

The emergency services arrived soon after and later that evening Endenburg, with two stents fitted, was sitting upright in bed having tea and sandwiches. He was discharged on the Monday and the following day he visited Green’s pro shop to say thank you.

“I was so fortunate that David was fully trained and had the equipment to hand,” said Endenburg. “Everyone said how calm and confident David was with the defibrillator and CPR. I can’t begin to express how grateful I am to David, Josh and everyone else for saving my life.”

According to David Sullivan, a client of Green’s who runs Heart Angels, an Oxted-based organisation providing defibrillators and training, of the 600+ male golfers who suffer a cardiac arrest on a golf course every year, some 400 are fatal because the means to save them wasn’t available fast enough.

Green is now campaigning for all PGA Professionals and their staff to be trained to deal with a cardiac arrest, starting with the PGA Training Programme.

He added: “For me, when I look more closely at this experience, I believe there are four imperatives:

• All PGA Professionals and their staff must be trained to deal with a situation of cardiac arrest, starting with the PGA training programme which must incorporate this.
• Training is vital and although the defibrillators are idiot-proof, you still need the confidence to use one. If someone is confronted with a situation of life or death, would they be able to respond confidently without the training – and how would they feel if they find they can’t do it?
• Being able to deal with the after-affects: the PGA already has provision for counselling through their Member benefits programme.
• Golf clubs need to ensure emergency services can access their golf courses safely and quickly.

“Between all of us, we’re going to see what we can do to change this, and help PGA Professionals and golf clubs to save lives.”

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