PORT ANGELES — Fred Pinckney sent fruit baskets to the crew of the MV Coho ferry earlier this month.
“I thought a case of beer would not go over well with management,” said Pinckney, 64, of Atlanta.
Pinckney suffered a massive heart attack aboard the passenger ferry May 27. He and his wife, Rebecca, sent the fruit baskets to thank the Port Angeles-based crew who sprang into action and saved his life.
“I can’t remember anything, but from everything I was told, the crew was just outstanding,” said Pinckney, who is recovering well at his home in Georgia.
The Pinckneys were on their way back from Butchart Gardens in Greater Victoria when Fred Pinckney suffered a “widow-maker,” a blockage of the left coronary artery, about halfway between Victoria and Port Angeles.
They had been vacationing in the Seattle area.
“God miraculously saved my husband’s life through the heroic efforts of the crew members of the MV Coho and the two passengers on the Coho — two ladies — and the extraordinary medical staffs at the Olympic [Medical Center] hospital and St. Joseph’s hospital in Tacoma,” Rebecca Pinckney said.
“People on board the Coho were so determined to make Fred live.”
The Coho, which travels several times daily between Port Angeles and Victoria, was in the middle of the Strait of Juan de Fuca about 45 minutes from the dock when Fred Pinckney lost consciousness and collapsed.
“It was pretty much a worst-case scenario,” said Chief Mate Jim Mackrow, who was in the wheelhouse when he heard the commotion in the mid-deck lounge.
“Out of the blue, Fred just had a heart attack,” Rebecca Pinckney said. “I was not believing what was happening.”
First on the scene were Second Mate Ben Rowland, Quartermaster Brandon Melville and Matron on Board Britney Balch, all of whom have extensive training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation, or CPR.
They were joined by two good Samaritans — a respiratory therapist who manned an airway mask and a nurse.
Fred Pinckney would later describe the two passengers as “heroines.”
Fred Pinckney was shocked 13 times with a defibrillator before he regained a pulse as the Coho rounded Ediz Hook doing 16 knots at full throttle.
“That was a very hopeful moment,” Mackrow said.
Medics rushed Pinckney from the ferry dock to Olympic Medical Center in Port Angeles. He was airlifted to St. Joseph Medical Center in Tacoma. He lost his pulse a second time.
“They didn’t give us much hope that first night,” Rebecca Pinckney said.
Ryan Burles, president and chief operating officer of Black Ball Ferry Line, which owns the Coho ferry, described the actions of the crew as “first-class.”
He said the ordeal was both draining and fulfilling for the first responders and the other Coho crew members.
“I am so very proud of them,” Burles said.
Burles and Mackrow said the entire crew pitched in, whether it was doing CPR or helping with crowd control.
“Really, the whole crew, through their training, responded without any instruction,” Mackrow said. “It was a great indication of our training.”
Rebecca Pinckney said her husband’s heart attack came as a shock to his doctors.
“He’s tall and athletic,” she said.
“What happened on the boat was completely asymptomatic,” Fred Pinckney added.
During Fred Pinckney’s nine-day recovery at the Tacoma hospital, Rebecca Pinckney stayed with friends in nearby Fircrest.
“They were so gracious,” she said. “Our sons played pro baseball together.”
One of the Pinckney’s sons played in the Boston Red Sox’s farm system. Fred Pinckney joked that his heart attack “was payback for all the baseball games my wife sat though over the years.”
Ultimately, Fred said his life was in the hands of God.
“He’s in control,” he said.
The Pinckneys said they enjoyed their trip to the Pacific Northwest and hope to return someday. Most of all, they are thankful that they made it home together.
“God gave my husband back to me,” Rebecca Pinckney said. “That is truly a miracle.”
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Reporter Rob Ollikainen can be reached at 360-417-3537 or at rob.ollikainen@peninsuladailynews.com.