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Bartlett nurse-to-be, Elgin minister credited with saving truck driver

John "Jack" Dempsey saved his doctor's note.

After surgery, chemotherapy and radiation, the cancer that had spread from his colon to both his lungs was in remission, his doctor wrote. The clean bill of health hung on the kitchen fridge, proudly displayed like a kid's drawing.

"He is beyond a fighter," his daughter Andi Dempsey-Letke says.

Four days after the news, the 75-year-old truck driver from South suburban Dolton was fighting for his life again. The father of eight had suffered a massive heart attack while driving a semi in Bartlett. The truck hit two vehicles and crashed into the corner of a Streamwood townhouse the afternoon of Nov. 24.

How he survived has to do with a nursing student, Burt Schwab's hammer, and timing.

"To give my unique pastoral opinion, God was in the details that day," said Schwab, 45, a minister who installs electrical signs.

'Fighting for him'

Jenny Golden decided to pick up her son early, frustrated from a long day of studying for her nursing exams at Elgin Community College. On the way to his day care, the Bartlett mom saw, from her rearview mirror, Dempsey's semi veer off the road near Oak Avenue and Lake Street.

Schwab was tired and a little lazy when he tossed his hammer into the back of his truck instead of locking it away like he usually does. On the way to his Elgin home, Schwab slammed on his breaks when the semi crossed into his lanes.

Both Golden and Schwab say they instinctively pulled over and tried to reach the driver. The passenger's-side door was locked. With a mangled fence limiting access, Golden crawled underneath the semi to get to the driver's side. Again, locked.

Jumping up and down, the petite Golden saw Dempsey was blue in the face. She screamed, ordering onlookers to break the window.

Schwab, meanwhile, had called 911 and checked the townhouse units, fearing the building could collapse as the good Samaritans worked to free Dempsey.

Hearing Golden's yells, he ran back to his truck and grabbed the hammer. It took "three good hits" to shatter the window, Schwab said.

Golden, five months shy of graduating from nursing school, climbed inside the cab and started giving CPR. She didn't stop until a police officer arrived and ordered onlookers to lift Dempsey out of the cab. Golden continued compressions while the cop set up an automated external defibrillator to shock his heart.

"I thought I failed him because I couldn't revive him," Golden, 37, said.

After an ambulance pulled away with Dempsey, Golden waited at the scene to give a statement to police. An officer told her Dempsey's heart started beating again on the way to the hospital.

But she wanted to know more.

"I had to know who Jack was," she said. "I had to know if he made it."

She found a Daily Herald story about the accident online, where Dempsey's family had posted comments from Facebook. Golden contacted the family, got a phone call from his daughter and visited him in the intensive-care unit at St. Alexius Medical Center in Hoffman Estates. The first time, he wasn't conscious.

"I was fighting for him and with him," she said.

Recovering

Doctors think Dempsey's heart stopped for 10 to 12 minutes, his daughter says.

They used a machine and cooling pads to lower his body temperature and slowly bring it back up - half a degree an hour. Hypothermia treatment, doctors told Dempsey's family, can block the damage to the brain from a lack of oxygen. Tests showed that Dempsey also had a minor stroke.

He beat doctors' expectations when he started talking about a week after the accident. He's now back at home, in physical and speech therapy, and trying to adjust to retiring. He used to start his job at 4 a.m. and took time off only when he had surgery to remove cancer in his lung.

"His life has just done a complete flip-flop," Andi Dempsey-Letke said.

Dempsey doesn't remember what happened. But Golden has continued to visit him. Their bond is close: His family gave Golden a Christmas ornament of angel's wings and sent her a video of Dempsey on the treadmill - giving her a thumbs-up for passing her nursing exams.

They call her his guardian angel. She calls them family.

Schwab stopped by the hospital, too, where Dempsey introduced him to his nurse as "the guy who saved my life."

Ask them about why they pulled over, and Golden and Schwab say they're just wired that way, to stay calm and to come to the aid of someone in need.

"I've just learned to be bold," Golden said.

John Dempsey's semi struck two vehicles and crashed into the corner of a Streamwood townhouse near Oak and Lake streets last month. Courtesy of Bartlett police
"He is beyond a fighter," Andi Dempsey-Letke says of her dad, John "Jack" Dempsey. Courtesy of Andi Dempsey-Letke
Bartlett mom and nursing student Jenny Golden gave CPR to an unresponsive John Dempsey. Courtesy of Jenny Golden
Burt Schwab helped free John Dempsey from the semitrailer truck that had crashed into a Streamwood townhouse Nov. 24, using a hammer to break a window so Jenny Golden could get in the cab to administer CPR. Courtesy of Burt Schwab
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