When former Mariners pitcher Bill Krueger collapsed at a Bellevue athletic club earlier this month, staff with CPR training and a defibrillator saved his life. Krueger met the men who rescued him Thursday.

"You guys are my angels," Krueger told the four Pro Sports Club staff members during a reunion at the club in Bellevue. "Your quick reactions saved my life!"

Krueger, who retired from Major League baseball in 1995, is a baseball analyst with ROOT Sports, a regional sports TV network. He was working out on an elliptical running machine at the Pro Club on Aug. 10 when his heart stopped beating properly.

Within minutes, Pro Club staffers Tom Spencer, Trevor Loos and Carl Swedberg were giving him CPR. When Swedberg gave him a jolt with the automatic external defibrillator available to the public at the club, Krueger's heart was shocked back into a good rhythm.

Krueger, who appeared at the Pro Club with his wife and daughter, said, "I'm humbly here to appreciate the quick reactions of the folks here at the Pro Club and the Bellevue and Redmond fire departments." Krueger has rully recovered and is back on the job at ROOT Sports.

"Our sincere appreciation goes to the Pro Sports Club for having an AED on site and to the employees for their readiness to respond immediately with CPR and use of the AED," said Dr. Mickey Eisenberg, medical director for the Emergency Medical Services Division of Public Health - Seattle & King County. "When every second counts, having an AED in close reach can be a matter of life and death."

Bellevue Fire Chief Michael Eisner said, "It is a pleasure to see this kind of concerted effort that involves so many layers: citizens, AED, two jurisdictions -- it was a seamless effort -- all working well together.”

Public Health - Seattle & King County offers more information about how organizations and businesses can obtain defibrillators.

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