Nearly two months after suffering a major heart attack, one Hillsboro man has a second chance at life.
On Thursday, he got the chance to thank the first responders who saved his life.
“I’m just so grateful to all of you for helping me have this second stage in life,” said Sean Walkenhorst.
It was a heart-warming reunion as Walkenhorst met the first responders who saved his life for the first time since his heart attack.
“This came as a shock,” he said. “I never had any previous issues or problems.”
On April 5, Walkenhorst, 50, had come home from playing basketball when he went into cardiac arrest.
“And then I guess as my wife came up the stairs, I called out -- I was more told than remember -- but I said, ‘April, call 911.’ And then a few seconds later, I lost consciousness and fell off the bed.”
“He was clenched up on the side of our bed, and then I rolled him over, and he started doing, I think it’s call agonal breathing, so he’s gasping for air,” said April.
Their daughter stayed on the phone with 911 while the dispatcher walked April through CPR.
“[April] got going. We corrected her pace a little, but other than that she had it down, and she had it going until the officers got there,” said Dina Cop, a 911 dispatcher.
Within two minutes, a Hillsboro police officer arrived and took over CPR. A second officer arrived and used an automated defibrillator until firefighter paramedics came.
"Some of them breathing for me, some of them doing CPR, still doing compressions, some of them talking to a cardiologist to get instructions, some of them getting an IV started with medications the cardiologist recommended," Walkenhorst said.
As soon as he got home from a nine-day stay in the hospital, Walkenhorst started reaching out to thank his rescuers. They arranged for a reunion to happen in person at Fire Station 6 in Hillsboro.
“I almost broke down,” Walkenhorst said. “I was just so touched for this opportunity to say thank you to these people that are and forever will be my heroes.”
“It’s overwhelming, and it just makes you realize sometimes we are able to make a real difference in people’s lives, and it’s very exciting,” said Cop, the dispatcher.