Lisle officers honored for helping to save Downers Grove man
Tom Sterr of Downers Grove is grateful he was able to meet Lisle police officers Brian Brendal, Sean McKay and Luke Rider for a second time.
They were reunited March 1 when the officers were honored with Lifesaving Awards during a brief ceremony at a Lisle village board meeting. Their first encounter was about three months earlier when the officers responded to a 911 call for the 60-year-old Sterr, who was in cardiac arrest and unconscious.
It was New Year's Eve, and Sterr and his wife, Rose, were at Benet Academy in Lisle. As a teacher there, Rose was able to bring her husband along to use the stationary bikes in the second-floor gym, even though the school was closed.
"I said to her that I was surprised at how sweaty I was getting, and that's the last thing I remember," Sterr recalled. "I collapsed after that."
Rose Sterr called 911 and tried to revive her husband by slapping him and splashing water on his face. The dispatcher contacted Lisle emergency responders and talked Rose through the steps of doing CPR.
Brendal, McKay and Rider were first to arrive at the scene, gaining admittance thanks to a janitor who let them into the locked school.
"Our first line of defense is to find out what we need to do," Rider said. "We found out he wasn't breathing, he wasn't conscious and we knew we needed to start CPR because he didn't have a pulse."
While Rider administered CPR, Brendal and McKay readied their portable automated external defibrillator to administer electric jolts to jump-start Sterr's heart.
"It's essentially just each officer doing what they can in order to hopefully keep this guy alive or bring him back," said Rider, who added that they were able to restart Sterr's pulse.
Paramedics from the Lisle-Woodridge Fire Protection District were the next to arrive. They transported Sterr to Edward Hospital in Naperville.
Sterr said doctors diagnosed him with ventricular arrhythmia, which he likened to an electrical storm around the heart that prompts it to stop because of the disturbance.
Because his lungs were damaged and not initially recovering, Sterr said, doctors put him into a medical coma until Jan. 11. He was able to return home seven days later.
"Recovery is going well," he said. "Thanks to everybody involved. My wife, the janitor, the police officers, the paramedics - the stars truly aligned to keep me alive."
Rider, Brendal and McKay were also glad they could meet Sterr again at the ceremony - especially since he was conscious this time.
"We are extremely proud of our officers, who used their advanced training and care for the community to assist a resident who needed lifesaving help," Lisle Police Chief Ron Wilke said in a statement after the ceremony. "These heroic acts are routinely conducted by police officers in DuPage County, and they should be commended for their dedication to the residents of our communities."
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