They're real life-savers
Lori Kulczycki turned back early from a morning bike ride this summer, making a seemingly innocuous decision that proved monumental.
Just after she headed for home around 7 a.m. July 9, she saw a man who'd collapsed on the Illinois Prairie Path.
The former nurse reacted.
She dialed 911, gave her cell phone to a passing runner, Rich Calvario, and asked him to provide crucial information to emergency services about their location and the victim.
Kulczycki then hopped off her bike, felt for the collapsed man's pulse and started CPR. In no time at all, some color returned to his ashen face.
Off-duty firefighter Kevin King, who happened to be using the Prairie Path at the time, ran over to offer Kulczycki encouragement and moral support as she continued delivering CPR.
Wheaton police officer Joseph Dimas arrived before the rescue trucks. He shocked the man with a portable defibrillator, making his heart start beating again and prompting him to start taking breaths.
Kulczycki, Calvario, King and Dimas all were given awards from Wheaton officials this week for actions. Wheaton police officer Timothy Schanz also was honored for helping to save the life of a man who was having a seizure in June.
About 2 a.m. June 18, a man dialed 911 when he realized he was having a seizure. But he wasn't able to identify his location or any other details before the connection was lost, Wheaton Deputy Police Chief Thomas E. Meloni said.
While dispatchers were able to track the man's cell phone and provide an approximate location for the last call, Schanz was the one who found him unconscious and not breathing near Arbor Avenue and Delles Road.
Schanz started performing CPR on the man, whose airway then opened up, allowing him to begin breathing again, officials said. He, like the other man, both survived and are doing well, Meloni said.
Living through episodes like those, from the caregiver's side, are instinctual when they're happening and thought-provoking when they conclude, Kulczycki said.
"When I stood up (after performing CPR) I had all these things wedged in my knees," she said. "I didn't even feel them."
She was called upon to perform CPR only once before - when she worked in a hospital.
"I replayed it for years in my mind," she said.
This summer's episode was even more intense. When calling for a resuscitation in a hospital, Kulczycki said, scores of people respond instantaneously.
In this case, she was on her own, pushing on a stranger's chest for 10 minutes in the middle of the Prairie Path - unsure when help would arrive.
She did get some helpful feedback, though.
"His color immediately improved," she said, "so I knew I was doing the right thing."