Crime & Safety

Veteran's Family Grateful for Life-Saving Actions on Memorial Day

Man's heart stopped beating before ceremony, but he is now scheduled to be in bypass surgery Thursday at Waukesha Memorial Hospital.

When y in Cutler Park, he was surrounded by all the right people to save his life.

A long-time CPR instructor immediately started chest compressions. Waukesha Battalion Chief Joe Hoffman was just pulling into Waukesha Fire Station No. 1 following the Memorial Day parade only a few blocks from the park when the 9-1-1 call came in about the collapsed man.

Paramedics followed from the fire station and the group of people combined their skills to save the man’s life. Now, the veteran's family is grateful to be able to spend time with the veteran before he heads into bypass surgery on Thursday, Hoffman said.

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“He is in good spirits right now,” Hoffman said. “They have got him up and walking around.”

The family is requesting the man’s name not be released until after the surgery at Waukesha Memorial Hospital. Hoffman said Wednesday that the veteran is “on the road to recovery.”

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The combination of citizen CPR, early defibrillation, fast paramedic response and immediate access to the hospital are recommended by medical authorities, and medical efforts at the scene involved all of them.

When the man’s heart stopped beating, , immediately called 9-1-1 and his wife, Sherri, who is a CPR instructor, started the heart compressions.

Hoffman was the first person from the Waukesha Fire Department on scene. He gave the first shock with the defibrillator, which was unsuccessful, he said.

That’s when the paramedics from Fire Station No. 1 arrived and delivered the first round of drugs. Then another shock was given to the man’s heart, which started to beat regularly, Hoffman said.

“He started beating and slowly started to regain consciousness,” Hoffman said “By the time we got him to the back of the ambulance, he was already starting to come back around and being alert.”

When the paramedics took the man to the ambulance, the crowd broke out in applause. Before the Memorial Day service began in the Les Paul band shell, those in attendance took a few minutes to pray for the man.

“The fire department is definitely grateful that we can use our training, resources and tools that were given to us by the citizens to save this veteran on Memorial Day,” Hoffman said.


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