Restaurant's donation helps save man's life

In October 2013, the franchise on Old Troy Pike donated $27,000 to the Huber Heights Fire Department. The funds allowed the department to purchase a pair of Lund University Cardiac Assist System (LUCAS) devices, one of which kept 60-year-old Oliver Boylan alive after a heart attack.

"Their donation of the machine pretty much saved my life," Boylan said in an interview.

The fact that Boylan is Grusenmeyer's uncle made the donation even more meaningful.

"We knew it was going to be a great help for the community but we had no idea it was going to hit so close to home," Grusenmeyer said.

The relatives gathered with members of the Huber Heights Fire Department on Monday to celebrate what was an avoided tragedy. The emergency workers called the meeting a "rare experience."

"One of the hardest parts of our job is we work on a lot of people and we never really know the outcome," Chief Mark Ashworth said. "Rarely do we hear back from the family."

Ashworth called the LUCAS CPR device "amazing", saying it takes the "guess work" out of performing CPR. He said his department has been using them for about two years and now have three of the devices at their disposal.

"Unfortunately, it is used a lot," Ashworth said. "The day we put this unit (that saved Boylan) in service, it was used that afternoon."

Boylan can't remember many details of his resuscitation and didn't know a machine had performed CPR on him until he woke up at the hospital.

"I sat down on the couch with my morning tea...and it all faded away," Boylan recalled. His doctors told him he suffered a heart attack and had to have three stints put in.

According to Grusenmeyer, Firehouse Subs collects money for emergency service grants by selling used pickle buckets and collecting donations from customers. Departments then fill out a grant request and the final decision is made by company officials. Boylan is just glad his local department was approved.

"I'll always be eternally grateful to them, to everybody in the EMS and Huber Heights Fire Department," Boylan said.