Comedian praises Spokane for rushing to save man who had heart attack during show

A group of Spokane residents saved a man’s life at Drew Lynch’s comedy show Friday evening after the audience member collapsed of a heart attack in the middle of the crowd.

“I got to experience a group of people coming together to revive someone to give them back their life,” Lynch said in an emotional video posted to social media. “… It was a beautiful thing, because it restored hope for whatever is going on in this crazy world.”

The man collapsed at Lynch’s early show about 10 minutes into his set, comedian Rachel Aflleje, who was also performing that night, wrote on Instagram.

It took “what felt like forever” to realize what was going on, but “people in the room with no ego” cleared a path and worked together to save the man’s life, Lynch said.

Staff and a group of nurses, sitting at a table behind him, quickly jumped into action and began performing chest compressions until paramedics arrived.

The man had no pulse for five minutes, so his survival was “a miracle,” Lynch said.

“Thank you, Spokane; you should be very proud,” he said with tears visible in his eyes.

Facebook users who attended the show wrote that Lynch quickly called for the lights to turn up and for those around the man to make plenty of room for the EMTs. Afterward, Lynch addressed the crowd and “spoke from the heart” to keep people at ease, an attendee wrote.

The next day, Lynch and Aflleje visited the man in the hospital, “and he simply could not be a cooler guy,” Affleje wrote.

“I was so relieved to see him surrounded by family and in such good spirits. He was joking with us, asking us comedy insider questions and telling us all about his work as a speech therapist in schools.”

Lynch is best known for his performances on America’s Got Talent, an appearance on Conan and his popular YouTube series “Dog Vlog.” After suffering a traumatic brain injury in 2011 during a softball game, Lynch was diagnosed with a stutter. He previously told The Spokesman-Review that the incident led to his career in standup. His video on Facebook about the incident has nearly 100,000 likes, and his Monday post has about 31,000 likes.

“In a divided world filled with hurt and uncertainty, we overlook how fragile the time is that we even get to be here. It feels like we forget that we’re all the same underneath… we’re all human,” Lynch wrote on Facebook Monday. “Shout out to the city of Spokane, the medical professionals, and the Wende family for bringing this beautiful man into my life and reminding me how special community is.”

The Spokane Comedy Club did not respond to a request for comment.