Suburban hero: Mundelein officer used defibrillator to help save man after heart attack
A Mundelein police officer is being lauded for using an automated external defibrillator to help save a man suffering a heart attack.
Officer Trevor McElroy responded to Lake County Brazilian Jiu-Jitsu, 370 Townline Road, on June 13 for a call of an unresponsive person.
Arriving less than two minutes after the call came in, McElroy grabbed a portable defibrillator from his squad car, jogged inside and found people already performing chest compressions on an unconscious 50-year-old Antioch man.
"They did a fantastic job," McElroy said.
The man, whose name hasn't been released, had suffered a heart attack and collapsed while training.
McElroy hooked up the defibrillator, performed a scan and then shocked the man's heart once. A second Mundelein police officer, Christopher Brigano, assisted.
While McElroy monitored the defibrillator, one of the civilians resumed CPR until paramedics arrived and took over. They shocked the man's heart again and took him by ambulance to Advocate Condell Medical Center in Libertyville.
The man's heartbeat resumed, he began breathing again and he regained consciousness.
"The outcome is a direct result of the speed at which everyone jumped into action, from the people in the class to the immediate response of the officer and then the continued care from (paramedics)," Police Chief Eric Guenther said.
The man has been discharged from the hospital and is recovering, officials said.
McElroy will receive a formal letter of recognition for his actions, Guenther said.
McElroy, a Marine veteran who suffered two combat injuries on the same day in Iraq in 2007, said he was fortunate to have received medical help then and is glad he could "give it back."
"I am ready for the next opportunity to help the Mundelein community," he said.
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