Good hockey players put themselves instinctively in the right place on the ice. Evan Domeyer wouldn't go so far as to call himself a good hockey player. "Not really, no." But he was good enough to save John Dow's life.
Dow, 48, was playing in an adult hockey league two weeks ago at the Schwan Super Rink in Blaine, when at center ice, his heart stopped.
"I had what they called sudden death," said Dow Wednesday from Mercy Hospital in Fridley.
From that point on Dow only knows what his teammate have told him. "I dropped to my knees. I grabbed my helmet, and I closed my eyes and I fell to the ice."
Enter Evan Domeyer, who was lacing up his skates in the locker room of an adjacent rink, when someone ran in looking for help. Domeyer wears a different uniform off the ice: that of a physician at Mercy Hospital.
"I was a little shocked when I got there to see what I saw," he recalls.
Domeyer estimates 20 people were standing around Dow, who lay motionless on the ice. Wisely, someone grabbed the ice arena's portable heart defibrillator. But it too lay on the ice next to Dow.
"Pretty much everybody was just standing around," says Domeyer. "It was just laying on the ice."
Domayer grabbed the device and put it to work. "We got him hooked up and it shocked him right away.'
Dow started breathing again. Two weeks and six heart bypasses later he's been released from the hospital.
"I'm grateful to have gotten to know him under these circumstances," said Dow, his arm around Dr. Domeyer.
But both men have wondered what might have happened if there hadn't been a doctor in the house. Would someone else have taken charge of the defibrillator?
"It's something that everyone should have that knowledge to know how to use," said Domeyer.
The portable units instruct even novice users on the fly, through audio and visual cues. Domeyer wishes more people would look into taking a short training class as well.
Dow no longer needs convincing. "I myself will learn how to do it when I get back to work."
Consider it the ultimate assist.
Heart healthy living
Defibrillator training courses
(Copyright 2009 by KARE. All Rights Reserved.)
