Roselle man meets with those who helped save his life

A “thank you” wasn't enough.

So when Dan Kirchen reunited Wednesday with the Carol Stream paramedics and firefighters who rushed to his aid last month, he told them a little about himself.

He told them about his marriage, fatherhood, an upcoming milestone. And in doing so, Kirchen reminded them what it means to save a life.

“I have a grandchild on the way,” Kirchen said.

The crew called to the emergency that day — Lt. T.J. Weinrich and firefighter-paramedics Kevin Hencinski, Dan Nelson, Alex Poynor and Kevin Hames — didn't know that. They saw him as a patient in need of help.

Kirchen met up with his running club July 5 at the track at Glenbard North High School. After a few laps, Kirchen felt tired and made his way toward a bench, where he collapsed.

Club members began performing CPR on an unresponsive Kirchen until paramedics arrived and confirmed Kirchen's heart had gone into cardiac arrest.

Without treatment, it can be a fatal condition within minutes, according to the American Heart Association. Of the more than 350,000 who suffer cardiac arrest outside a hospital each year, almost 90 percent die.

Kirchen would not be one of them.

In the back of ambulance No. 27, Hames took over compressions before other medics used a defibrillator to deliver one shock to the heart.

His normal heartbeat was restored and his condition stabilized on the way to Central DuPage Hospital in Winfield.

“By the time we were moving him over to the emergency room bed, he was sitting up and talking,” Hames said.

Kirchen eventually would undergo heart surgery to clear blockages in his arteries. With a history of high cholesterol in the family, Kirchen tried to eat healthy and keep up his exercise.

His wife, Sandy, thinks that lifestyle may have led to a speedy recovery. Less than a month after he collapsed, Kirchen returned to work as an accountant.

“He kept saying I want to be a grandfather,” Sandy Kirchen said.

One day after learning their oldest daughter is expecting a boy — their first grandchild — in January, the Roselle couple attended a special roll call at the headquarter station Wednesday, where Fire Chief Bob Hoff presented crew members with plaques recognizing their “team effort.”

“Everybody was there at the right time, and it was a miracle,” Sandy Kirchen said.

Her husband recognized a few of the paramedics who visited him in the hospital. He's now feeling “fantastic.”

“That's why we do this job. We don't do the job for awards,” Hames said. “We don't do it for anything other than this.”