Community Corner 4 People, 2 Minutes, 1 NL Man’s Life Saved After Heart Attack At Gym A New Lenox man collapsed after a heart attack at ReClaim Fitness. The people, the place and what came next, is quite a story. Replies (4)
Bill and Jenny Neubauer with their children. Bill suffered a heart attack while working out at a New Lenox gym Sept. 9. He survived thanks to bystanders’ quick thinking. (Photo by Jess Lynsey Photography)
NEW LENOX, ILLINOIS — Gary Grzesiak has watched the video from inside the gym that day. It all happened in just minutes.
Bill Neubauer had just sat down to bench press at ReClaim Fitness, 1325 E. Lincoln Highway in New Lenox on Sept. 9, and that was the last thing he remembered. Neubauer, 44, had suffered a heart attack—in the right place, at the right time, with the right people around him. As if they’d done it many times before, three people who would become key players in saving Neubauer’s life jumped into action, with two flexing training and instinct to revive him.
“The ER staff at Silver Cross said that between the Good Samaritan, the staff at the gym and EMTs—everybody did everything exactly the way that they should have,” Neubauer said. The Good Samaritan was 19-year-old Orland Hills woman Lizzie Ritter, who was working out in her usual routine, when she heard another patron shout for someone to call 911. She quickly realized that a man near her needed help.
“I immediately turned and ran right to Bill,” Ritter told Patch. She was new to the gym—it was only her fourth visit—but her physical training was not what she pulled from in those seconds. Ritter is a trained medic, having just completed EMT school.
She checked his breathing and pulse and, finding none, immediately began chest compressions. ReClaim General Manager of Operations Grzesiak had heard the shouts for 911; a patron called 911 and stood outside waiting for the ambulance. Grzesiak grabbed the gym’s automated external defibrillator (AED) as he rushed to Neubauer. He unpackaged the device, told Ritter to lift Neubauer’s shirt and pull it back. One shock brought Neubauer back. The whole thing took just minutes, and paramedics were there within five, he said.
“It was pretty amazing, the whole thing was about 2 minutes,” Grzesiak told Patch. “It was quick action by a lot of people.” Ritter remembers the rush of the save, and can still picture her hands shaking from adrenaline as Neubauer gasped for air and went to sit up. “I remember grabbing his hand, telling him paramedics were on their way,” she said. “And Gary—him being there, as that support, letting me know that we’re doing everything we can, and I told him I don’t think I could it without him being there next to me.” It was a life-saving moment for Neubauer, and a life-affirming one for Ritter. Just one day earlier, she had failed her EMT national exam, and was questioning her life path. “I honestly feel like it was divine intervention for me,” Ritter said. “I was doubting myself on everything, whether or not this career was going to be good for me. After all that happened, I realized this is what I can do. I’m so grateful Bill is OK and with his family.”
And now she’s sure: she wants to be a medic, possibly a flight medic. “I just want to be a first responder, for sure,” she said. The fortune of being near a trained medic as he was near death is not lost on Neubauer—nor is the luck that he was in public when he collapsed. An active man, Neubauer has regularly seen his doctor since he turned 40. With a history of heart issues in his family—his father died in 2021 of a heart attack at 71 years old—he has tried to stay on top of his health, exercising regularly and eating well. He and his wife Jenny, who works as a planner with the Village of New Lenox, have three children—daughters aged 13 and 11, and a son age 8. They’ve lived in New Lenox for 11 years. “I work out several times a week, eat healthy,” he said. “My wife and I walk just about every day, or every other. Eating-wise, we did eat pretty well, occasionally we would splurge.”
Neubauer had just had a heart CT scan 18 months ago, showing no issues. “Everything came back within normal range,” he said. “There were no red flags.” Tests after his heart attack, though, showed something terribly wrong. An angiogram revealed 70-90 percent blockages in all arteries of his heart. He would undergo a quadruple bypass shortly afterward. “They said I had too many blockages,” Neubauer said, “so that was the only option I had.” Neubauer’s primary care doctor was “dumbfounded,” he said.
“I obviously had no idea that I had that many blockages,” Neubauer added. “Doctors have said I did everything right, did everything that I could have. You can’t ignore the genetics aspect of it.” While shocked that it happened, he couldn’t be more grateful for where it did. “… usually a lot of the time, I’ll run by myself around my subdivision,” he said, realizing it could have happened there, and he might not have been found. “It could have happened anywhere, and the fact that it happened where it did—it couldn’t have happened at a better place.” He later connected with Grzesiak and Ritter, and heard the details of what they did that day. Ritter was thankful to know he is recovering. “It made me feel great, because after I got home that day, I thought, ‘what if I didn’t do that right?'” Ritter said. “It was such a relief to me that my training helped save a life.”
Grzesiak said the gym opened in 2001, and even under previous ownership had stocked an AED device since 2002—before it became state law in 2005. Staff members are also regularly certified in CPR, he added. “It was a very quick situation, you have to think on your feet,” he said. “… Thank the Lord that Lizzie was there. … I couldn’t have done it without Lizzie. Pretty amazing situation—intense, too.” He’s glad he could play a part in Neubauer’s story. “It all happened in the right place, at the right time for him,” he added. Neubauer knows he’s right, and he’s grateful for everyone’s quick thinking that day. The Village Board plans to recognize Ritter and Grzesiak at a future board meeting, he said, but he wants to make sure they get the recognition they deserve.
4 People, 2 Minutes, 1 NL Man’s Life Saved After Heart Attack At Gym
