Community Effort Saves Wis. Man from Heart Attack

Aug. 21--Roger Dahl was feeling fit and didn't want to quit playing Frisbee, but another player was winded after 45 minutes of tossing, so they took a break.

Minutes later, the 52-year-old La Crosse man was surrounded by friends, strangers and medical personnel trying to revive him after his show-stopping heart attack Saturday during Larryfest in the town of Whitestown.

"It was lights out," Dahl said during an interview Tuesday, although he doesn't remember much about the experience.

"He was sitting at the table and collapsed," recalled Mike Schieber, Dahl's partner in life and as co-owner of Realwood Products Inc. in La Crosse.

"A friend looked to see if he had just passed out, and then he started turning blue," Schieber said.

An acquaintance started cardio-pulmonary resuscitation while another called 911.

"Then they stopped the band and asked from the stage whether any medical personnel were in the audience and people came flying, literally," Schieber said.

Dr. Joshua Sebranek, a nephew of Larry Sebranek, the namesake of the annual festival on the family farm, was among them.

"He was unresponsive and did not have a palpable pulse," said Sebranek, who just happens to be head of the division for cardiovascular and thoracic anesthesiology at the University of Wisconsin-Madison School of Medicine and Public Health.

Other people had started CPR, and Sebranek asked whether an automated external defibrillator was available.

There wasn't at the time, but Vernon County Deputy Larry Howell arrived within minutes with one of the 20 defibrillators his department had bought just last year in case of such emergencies.

Sebranek used the AED four times between mandatory two-minute intervals of CPR to shock Dahl's heart.

Before the fifth jolt, the AED signaled that no further shocks were needed, indicating restoration of a heart rhythm, although Dahl still didn't have a pulse, Sebranek said during a phone interview Tuesday.

A La Farge EMS crew transported Sebranek and Dahl to a neighboring field just as a Gundersen Health System MedLink Air helicopter was landing there.

By that time, Dahl had a normal heart rate and blood pressure, although he hadn't fully regained consciousness, Sebranek said.

Sebranek said he was concerned about possible brain damage after CPR of seven to 10 minutes. Later, he learned that Dahl was doing well after a stent was inserted in a coronary artery at Gundersen in La Crosse.

Although Sebranek wielded the AED to revive Dahl, he spreads the credit, citing Howell and others who did CPR as crucial.

"This guy's life was saved because of 20-plus people jumping to help with a miracle," Sebranek said. "It was a huge community effort."

Schieber agreed, saying, "For being in the middle of the woods, it truly was a lining up of the right people at the right place."

Dahl chimed in, saying, "I'm so grateful for the people there. I've gotta find some names and do some heavy thank-yous."

Dahl and Schieber remain puzzled that he is the one who had the heart attack, because he quit drinking eight months ago, doesn't smoke, watches what he eats and walks three to five miles a day.

"I don't exercise, and I smoke," the 51-year-old Schieber said.

Dahl, a native of Trempealeau, said he had a good report after a physical in January, although his mother had heart disease and his father died of a heart attack.

His heart attack serves as a lesson others should heed, Dahl said.

"People need to be aware that things are going on you don't know about," he said.

Released from the hospital Monday, Dahl continued to recover at home Tuesday, watering plants in his and Schieber's tropical backyard so abundant with foliage that it harbors a Key Westian feel.

He hopes to return to his beloved job of designing and making wood furniture Friday, once the pain in his ribs subsides.

"My chest is real sore from the CPR compression," he said. They beat me up pretty much to get things going -- not that I'm complaining."

Copyright 2013 - La Crosse Tribune, Wis.