Contra Costa paramedic, Fairfield nurse hailed as heroes

Riley Cannon came to the CrossFit Games to cheer on the world’s top athletes.

Theresa Watkins came to represent her fire department at an informational booth.

Neither woman expected to spend that Saturday morning fighting to save the life of a stranger.

Just before competition began outside San Jose’s SAP Center on July 25, the two friends — one an intensive care nurse, the other a veteran firefighter/engineer-paramedic — found themselves kneeling beside a 76-year-old man whose heart had suddenly stopped beating.

Within minutes, they performed CPR, delivered a lifesaving shock with an automated external defibrillator and helped restore his pulse before emergency crews arrived.

Today, Jim Martin is expected to make a full recovery with no neurological deficits, and Cannon and Watkins are being praised for the calm, decisive actions that made the difference between life and death.

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“I did not like what I was seeing,” Cannon recalled. “The way he was lying on his back, I could see that he was belly breathing, gasping. Somebody said, ‘Oh, he’s breathing. He’s fine,’ but I knew better.”

Cannon, an ICU registered nurse at NorthBay Medical Center in Fairfield, had traveled to the games with friends. A longtime CrossFit coach and athlete, she stopped to chat with Watkins, a firefighter/engineer and paramedic with the Contra Costa County Fire Protection District, who was staffing a department booth in the vendor village.

As Cannon walked away, she heard a commotion just a few booths over.

She made her way through the crowd and tried to check the man’s pulse.

“I really could only reach his wrist initially, so I checked his pulse there and couldn’t find one,” Cannon said. “Eventually I was able to get people out of the way, checked his neck pulse, and he didn’t have one.”

Watkins had also noticed people rushing toward the scene.

“My coworker and I were sitting there, and she saw people moving quickly in one direction and thought there might be a medical emergency,” Watkins said. “I got up to look and saw Riley feeling for a pulse. Riley said, ‘I don’t think he has a pulse. We need to start CPR.’”

The two immediately began working together.

About 1 minute and 45 seconds into CPR, Martin regained a pulse and briefly became conscious before slipping back into cardiac arrest, Watkins said. They resumed compressions until someone arrived with an AED. After following the device’s prompts and delivering one shock, they continued CPR while Cannon used a rescue breathing mask another bystander had brought to the scene.

Moments later, Martin began breathing on his own. By the time first responders arrived, he was awake and alert.

Watkins later wrote to NorthBay praising Cannon’s actions.

“Riley’s calm demeanor, quick assessment, and immediate intervention made a life-saving difference,” Watkins wrote. “Her professionalism, clinical skills, and willingness to act without hesitation truly reflect the values of healthcare professionals.”

For Cannon, the rescue was unlike anything she had experienced despite years as an ICU nurse.

“I was relieved. I know Theresa, and I knew who I was working with at that point,” she said. “I’m used to being in a hospital where I’m working with people I know. I’ve never had to do it out in the field like this.”

Ironically, Cannon had spent the week before reviewing CPR training materials for an upcoming certification renewal.

But amid the chaos, one thing kept her focused.

“I heard very clearly his wife yelling and crying,” Cannon said. “At that point I just said, ‘We need to get him back. I don’t care how scared I am. I just have to keep doing what I’m doing so that he goes home with her.’”

For Karen Martin, Jim’s wife, the timing still feels impossible to comprehend.

The couple, longtime members of the CrossFit community from San Diego, had stopped at the games while driving north to Oregon, where they plan to move closer to family.

Just minutes earlier, Jim had been parking the car alone.

“If it had happened 10 minutes earlier, he had been by himself,” Karen Martin said. “We would have had a very different outcome.”

Instead, an ICU nurse and an experienced firefighter-paramedic happened to be only steps away.

“For these two people to be right there, they were right on him,” she said. “Those two kept him alive until the AED and the first responders could arrive. What on earth gave us this blessing? We are so grateful.”

Doctors later determined Jim Martin would need bypass surgery.

“We have a long road ahead of us,” Karen Martin said. But that’s the key — he’s alive, and there is a road ahead, she said.

Watkins said Contra Costa County Fire Protection District plans to nominate both women for a Field Service Hero Award. She hopes the experience also inspires more people to learn CPR.

“The biggest thing is community CPR,” she said. “You never know when something like this might happen, and you may be the only person there to help.”

Cannon echoed that message, urging people not to mistake agonal gasping for normal breathing.

“Check for the pulse,” she said. “People saw him agonal breathing, and if you don’t know what that is, you can mistake it and say, ‘He’s breathing. He’s going to be OK.’”

Agonal breathing is an abnormal, reflexive gasping pattern — characterized by labored breaths, strange vocalizations, and long pauses — that occurs when the brain is deprived of oxygen, typically signaling a life-threatening emergency like cardiac arrest.

Back at NorthBay Health, Cannon said the recognition has been humbling.

“Everyone’s been very proud of me,” she said.

Still, she’s hoping lightning doesn’t strike twice.

“I’m glad I know how,” she said with a laugh. “But I would like not to have to do that ever again.”