'Thank You is Not Enough:' EMS Week Honors Local Lifesavers

Denise Dreher describes it as a life-changing event. For her husband, Mark, it was nearly life-ending.

This week, the couple attended ’s annual Emergency Services Week banquet to say thank you to the first responders they credit with saving Mark’s life.

It’s been more than a year since Mark, then 54, went into full cardiac arrest at the couple’s Plainfield home.

“My husband is really healthy,” Denise said. “We work out, we eat right, he’s never had any kind of health problems.”

So it came as a shock when Mark collapsed in the couple’s kitchen the morning of April 8, 2011.

“I heard this horrible, loud noise,” Denise said. When she rushed into the kitchen, Denise said what she saw stunned her.

“I felt like he was dead,” she said. “He was gray-blue — it was horrible.”

Knowing it was up to her to keep her husband alive until paramedics arrived, Denise said a sense of calm came over her as she dialed 9-1-1. WESCOM dispatcher Angela Martin answered the call, guiding Denise as she administered CPR to her husband.

“I took CPR years ago, but I never used it,” she said. “[Martin] talked me through it, and it all came back to me. It was amazing.”

Minutes later, paramedics from the arrived.

“It seemed like an eternity before they got here, but in reality, I think it was eight minutes,” Denise said.

They immediately got to work, using a defibrillator to shock Mark’s heart before loading him into an ambulance headed for Provena Saint Joseph Medical Center.

“I prayed so hard,” Denise remembered. “At that point in time, I really didn’t think he was going to make it.”

But even though the odds were against him — cardiac arrest kills more than 350,000 Americans every year — Mark did make it.

In fact, the Plainfield grandfather made a complete recovery.

After several days in a hypothermic coma, induced to protect his brain and allow his body to heal, Mark awoke with no brain damage.

“The cardiologist who worked on him actually started crying,” Denise said, her voice breaking.

Denise said she learned how important her own role was in her husband’s survival.

“The doctor said if I would not have given him CPR, he wouldn’t have made it,” she said.

Denise said doctors later determined a virus Mark had contracted the previous fall had attacked his heart, leading to cardiac arrest.

After his recovery, the couple stopped at the fire station to visit Mark’s lifesavers: Lt. Eric Jensen and firefighter/paramedics Matt Muehlbauer, Raymond Crompton, Lorin Eichelberger and Chris Marchinski.

“The guys said, ‘You don’t know how good it is to see you standing here,’” Denise said. “You look at life through a different pair of glasses after something like this.”

Jensen said it’s not often that a former patient stops into the firehouse to say hello.

“It’s awesome when you shake that person’s hand,” Jensen said. “You see that person at the worst possible time in their life and in their family’s life,” he said. “It really makes you think, ‘This is why we do this.’”

Jensen was also quick to note Denise’s lifesaving actions.

“Obviously, I can’t stress enough — I think that one of the key things is that CPR was started right away,” he said. “Early CPR is definitely something everyone should know.” (For information on signing up for a CPR class through the Plainfield Fire Protection District, click here)

The crew that helped save Mark Dreher’s life was recognized at the EMS Week banquet Monday at Harrah’s Casino in Joliet. Once again, the couple got to personally thank them.

“How can you repay them for that?” Denise said. “Thank you is not enough.”

The following Plainfield EMS workers were recognized for their years of service during Monday’s ceremony at Harrah’s:

• Five Year: Joseph Schroeder, Lorin Eichelberger, Ryan Franzen 
• Ten Year: Carl Schultz, Chad Johnson, Raymond Crompton, Anthony Maviglia, Brian Watts
• Fifteen Year: Kelly Rogina
• Twenty Year: Jeff Marciniak

Cheryl Hansen, EMS coordinator for the Plainfield Fire Protection District, said the following crews were also recognized for taking lifesaving action on calls:

• Firefighter/paramedics Kelly Rogina, Jim Pubentz and Eric Watkins were honored for a June 11, 2011 call in which a 57-year-old man was in full cardiac arrest.
• Lt. Mike Obman and firefighter/paramedics Jared Zubaty, Joe Broadus, Karen Kelly, Dan Maluta and Art Mallo responded to a call on Oct. 27, 2011, responded to a call with an elderly woman who had been experiencing cold and flu symptoms, using a 12-lead EKG to determine the more serious cardiac issues that threatened her life.