‘You’re not done’: Shutesbury resident saves life of good friend by performing CPR at remote camp

Michael Haynack is alive today because of what he calls a “cascade of miracles.”

The first of those miracles was the presence of his longtime friend Frank Grindrod when an unexpected heart attack threatened his life. The second, and perhaps most important, was the Shutesbury resident’s knowledge of CPR and his ability to perform it on Haynack for almost 20 minutes as emergency responders rushed to the remote, heavily wooded scene.

On the first day of summer camp on July 29 at Earthwork Programs in Conway, Haynack, 72, was having trouble catching his breath shortly before parents began to arrive with their kids. Haynack has taught martial arts at the Earthwork camp — which Grindrod founded and owns, attracting families from throughout Hampshire and Franklin counties and beyond — for decades and was preparing to teach a special class for its 25th anniversary. As breathing became more difficult, he instinctively reached for his inhaler, which had saved him from asthma attacks before, but it offered no relief.

“I was draining the inhaler,” said Haynack, a Conway resident formerly from Amherst.

“It wasn’t doing anything,” added Grindrod, who happened to be walking by when he heard Haynack wheezing in the camp’s lodge. “This seemed different, it felt different, but he didn’t know what it was.”

When Haynack’s responsiveness started to fade, his face growing slack and his pulse halting, Grindrod, 54, knew it was time to intervene. Thanks to his background as a Marine and training as a Wilderness First Responder, he was well-versed in CPR. After the event, fellow camp staffers told Grindrod that he went into an intensely focused state, shouting for Haynack to stay alive.

Grindrod said that his mantra the whole time was “you’re not done,” which he repeated to Haynack as he forced oxygen into his system.

“The hardest thing for me was, you know, we have 20 years of friendship,” he said. “Imagine being with someone you’ve known for 20 years and you see the life going out of his eyes ... I was terrified.”

Haynack has been involved in programming at Earthwork for 22 of its 25 years in existence. Together, he and Grindrod instruct campers in martial arts, teaching them how to be warriors inside and out. A large part of this, Grindrod said, is getting across an important underlying lesson: “a warrior is someone who protects those who can’t protect themselves.”

In that moment, Haynack certainly couldn’t protect himself, and it was up to Grindrod to push through the panic and become the warrior his friend needed.

The CPR ended up breaking five of Haynack’s ribs, but it ultimately saved his life, keeping vital functions operating long enough for help to arrive. Grindrod recalled the “incredibly valuable” help of Chris Harris from the Conway Police Department, who helped him keep the compressions going as they maneuvered Haynack onto a stretcher, and remained a level-headed force in getting him to the hospital.

Meeting Haynack’s ambulance at Cooley Dickinson Hospital, Grindrod and other concerned camp staffers were greeted with uncertainty — they would have to wait 20 minutes to be told whether Haynack was stable, which was even harder for Grindrod than the intense period of CPR.

“That was the hardest 20 minutes, when I didn’t know anything,” he said.

But when he finally got to go up to Haynack’s room, he found his friend awake, alert, and answering questions from doctors as they ran tests to ensure that he’d suffered no damage from oxygen deprivation. It was then that medical professionals told Grindrod that people in emergencies like this one rarely make it to the hospital, and if he hadn’t started CPR when he did and sustained it for so long, his friend could very well be gone.

“If you don’t get the CPR in seconds, you could die right there,” said Haynack. “They were saying this was basically supernatural CPR… that he was able to do it that long was a miracle.”

“I got my cardio in,” Grindrod joked in response.

Haynack was able to go home on Saturday, after being transferred to Baystate Hospital for a procedure implanting a defibrillator in his chest. The device is meant to help protect him from future cardiac events, as this scare wasn’t his first. About nine years ago, while he was teaching women’s self-defense courses with a friend in Nepal, Haynack was rushed to the hospital in a similar emergency situation.

“Luckily, the best cardiologist in the country happened to be having lunch there,” he said.

He ended up getting the life-saving care he needed, but he didn’t feel nearly as comforted or supported as he did this time around. With the help of Grindrod, other camp staffers, and the medical professionals at both Cooley Dickinson and Baystate Medical Center, Haynack said he “felt like [he] was in the arms of angels.”

Now, Haynack is in a two-month recovery period during which he can spend time with his friends and campers, but isn’t able to engage in most of his usual work. Because he’ll be missing out on eight weeks of work, Grindrod and other close friends have set up a GoFundMe fundraiser to help support him during this time.

Though his body needs some rest, Haynack’s kind spirit and sense of humor remain entirely intact. After this experience, he says he’s “even more grateful” for his life and his friendship with Grindrod.

“Frank was the superhero, I was just the unconscious dead guy,” he laughed.