Ernie Withers couldn’t believe his eyes, marveling as much at the picturesque city skyline that serves as a backdrop to PNC Park as his good fortune to see a Pittsburgh Pirates game with his wife, Cindy Lou.
“Neither one of us should be here right now,” Withers told TribLive on Thursday night as he watched the Pirates play the Washington Nationals in his first-ever visit to the ballpark. “It’s amazing to think about it.”
It only became more unbelievable when Withers received a personal message from Pirates chairman Bob Nutting, who gifted the couple an even better view with a pair of seats directly behind home plate in Section 16.
A Youngstown, Ohio, native who lives in Bradenton, Fla., Withers collapsed in the outfield and went into sudden cardiac arrest during a spring training practice at Pirate City in February 2023. The rapid response by members of the team’s medical and training staffs saved his life, as Dr. Patrick DeMeo performed CPR and trainer Matt McNamee used an automated external defibrillator to resuscitate Withers before an ambulance arrived and took him to the hospital.
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The incident motivated Withers, 69, a retired general manager of a Mercedes-Benz dealership, to pay it forward. He started the Defibrillate Manatee Foundation, which will donate three AEDs to the Pirates medical and training staffs before Friday’s game against the Nationals to run its total AED donations to 75 in just 18 months.
“My goal was to get to 100,” Withers said. “I’m on the road to my original goal.”
What became a passion project for Withers also saved his wife’s life.
A longtime Tampa Bay Buccaneers fan, he formed a friendship with former Bucs kicker Martin Grammatica, who offered the Withers’ free full-body scans as part of a promotional spot for his company, Life Guard Imaging. The scans revealed that Cindy Lou had a cancerous tumor in her right kidney. By catching her Stage 2 kidney cancer — known as the “silent killer” because of its difficult detection — she was able to have her kidney removed in May 2023 and is cancer-free.
“The doctor said if I didn’t have my sudden heart attack and we didn’t have those body scans, it wouldn’t have been detected, and we would have never found out,” Withers told TribLive this past February. “It would have been too late.”
Not only has Withers donated 75 AEDs through the foundation, as well as 30 training simulators and 30 CPR mannequins, but he also teaches CPR classes and has certified 100 people.
“It’s so rewarding to see people and how excited they are to learn CPR and to use it,” Withers said. “It’s been inspiring to me, to give back.”
Kevin Gorman is a TribLive reporter covering the Pirates. A Baldwin native and Penn State graduate, he joined the Trib in 1999 and has covered high school sports, Pitt football and basketball and was a sports columnist for 10 years. He can be reached at kgorman@triblive.com.