Sandy Zimmerman does not remember going to Nolan Bros. Boxing on Dec. 20. She does not remember going into cardiac arrest as she attempted to punch a boxing bag as part of her workout. She does not remember receiving emergency treatment from a fellow boxer at the gym, and she does not remember slipping into a coma as she arrived at the hospital.
Zimmerman doesn’t remember any of that happening; but she is alive today due to the swift actions of her fellow gym members.
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Zimmerman works out regularly at the gym, and said she was told she collapsed while doing a routine exercise. Joe Swanton, a Waltham firefighter and amateur boxer who trains at the gym, attended to Zimmerman quickly while 911 was called.
“I was doing a conditioning class upstairs when the trainer from Sandy’s class ran upstairs saying something that happened,” Swanton said. “I just ran downstairs; as a firefighter we are used to responding to these kinds of incidents.”
Swanton said he immediately noticed that Zimmerman was unresponsive, and he checked for a pulse and could not find one. He then performed what is called a sternum rub, to check for any reaction and didn’t see anything.
“At that point I knew we had a serious issue. Her body was performing agonal breathing, which is when a body is shutting down and trying to get oxygen,” Swanton said. “With the help of a few other people, we moved her a bit and I started pumping her chest. I did that for a few minutes and then Engine 4 (of the WFD) arrived.”
Zimmerman said that EMTs were able to shock her heart back into beating and to get her to breath on her own. She was transported to Newton Wellesley Hospital, before being moved to Brigham and Women’s Hospital. For more than two days, Zimmerman was in a coma and the outlook did not look good.
“They told my daughter to expect the worst, and that if I did recover, I wouldn’t be the same,” Zimmerman said. “My children told me that while I was in the hospital, they heard me talking to my mother, who has been dead for 12 years, and I was telling her that I wasn’t ready to see her yet.”
Miraculously, Zimmerman regained consciousness. An implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) was put in her chest to monitor her heart rate, and after 10 days in the hospital she was released. Today, she is able to function normally, although she admits to being more tired and she cannot resume her boxing exercises.
‘If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here’
Zimmerman started going to Nolan Bros. Boxing at 22 Sun St. after being introduced to it by a friend. She has been a regular at the gym over the past several years.
“The gym is amazing, everyone is incredible, very nice and humble, it’s like Cheers,” Zimmerman said. “If it wasn’t for them, I wouldn’t be here today. And the doctors told me that if I wasn’t in such good physical shape, I wouldn’t have made it and I credit that to the gym as well.”
Matt Nolan, who owns the gym along with his brother Mark, was working with a class on the upper floor of the gym when he heard about Zimmerman collapsing.
“When I say that everybody sprung into action, I mean everybody. We had people performing CPR, people calling 911, people asking for help from people. Before I even made it downstairs, someone had already called an ambulance,” Nolan said. “There is such a community aspect to a boxing gym; Sandy is there every day of the week, sometimes twice a day. Seeing her on the ground was like seeing a family member like that.”
Zimmerman was able to visit the gym for the first time after the accident last week, where shirts for the gym that read “Nolan Bros. Boxing: We Save Lives” were handed out.
“It was so great seeing Sandy at the gym; I told Mark and Matt (Nolan) this; as many wins as we have had inside the ring, this was our biggest win,” Swanton said. “We love boxing, but being able to see Sandy and knowing she can still hug her children, nothing beats that.”
Swanton has been a firefighter in Waltham since 2019 and said his training through the department was instrumental in being able to react so quickly to help Zimmerman.
“We had just done some CPR training and we do that enough that it all comes to you quickly. In that kind of situation, the training kicks in and you understand how to check the scene and what to do,” Swanton said. “It is just part of being a firefighter; I had a similar incident literally the next day while on the job.”