Despite WSU’s loss to Eastern Washington University on Saturday, the worst part of the day for some fans came after the game ended.

Teresa Bingman, a 1991 WSU graduate, was with her husband Bob and two longtime friends in their car in the Lewis Alumni Centre parking lot. One of their friends, Tim, was sitting in the back seat when Bob noticed there was something wrong with him.

Bob asked Tim several times if he was okay and he did not respond, Bingman said.

“I looked back,” she said, “and he was just sitting there with a blank stare.”

Tim was having a heart attack.

The Alumni Center’s parking lot was mostly empty. Bingman ran around to Tim’s side of the car and threw the door open. She and Bob unbuckled Tim and pulled him out of the car and onto the ground.

Patrick Perry, a volunteer firefighter in Spokane, swapped shifts with someone at work so he could attend the game with some family.

An EWU alum, Perry rooted for the Eagles on game day but said he supports both universities.

Perry was in the back seat of his car when he heard someone was lying on the ground outside of a car. When he saw Tim, he immediately rushed over to help.

“It was my first time actually using CPR in the field,” he said.

Perry was trained in CPR in college and again when he became a firefighter. He mainly focused on keeping Tim’s airway open and clear while others worked on chest compressions until first responders arrived.

“His eyes were open,” Perry said, “but there was nothing there.”

Chris and Jennifer Brown, WSU alumni of 1997 and 1996, respectively, saw Tim lying there, surrounded by people, and ran over to help. Chris is a Bellingham police officer and helped Perry with the chest compressions, Jennifer said. She estimated that Chris did chest compressions for 7-10 minutes before the medics arrived.

“After the medics arrived we left,” Jennifer said, “because we didn’t want to add to the chaos or be in the way.”

Paramedics revived Tim using a defibrillator on the way to Pullman Regional Hospital, Bingman said.

“We stopped at the hospital on our way out of town hoping to find out how he was doing,” Jennifer said, “but they weren’t able to tell us.”

Tim was later flown to an intensive care unit at Deaconess Hospital in Spokane, according to one of Bingman’s Facebook posts.

Now, Tim is out of the ICU and doing well even though he is sore from the chest compressions and the defibrillator, Bingman said. He may be able to go home by the end of the week.

Perry thanked District 8 for the CPR knowledge and encourages everyone to learn CPR.

“If I didn’t have that training,” he said, “I might not have gotten out of the car and helped a person when they needed me.”

Eagles fans and Cougar fans came together to comfort Tim’s wife, Bingman said. They offered prayers and rides to the hospital.

“I have no doubt they would do it again,” she said.

Tim’s family requested that he be referred to by first name only for privacy reasons.