`Angels` Identify Themselves to Austin Heart Attack Victim

May 07--Dr. Ron Burnett was nearing the end of his 20-mile bike ride when he saw a red light, changed his route and rode toward O. Henry Middle School. That's when he came across Doug Gowland.

Gowland was lying on the grass in the school parking lot. One man was performing CPR. Another was timing the compressions. Several others stood by the road with their cellphones, ready to wave down EMS. So Burnett, a chiropractor, jumped in to help.

The last time he saw Gowland, he was breathing and being loaded into an ambulance. On Monday, Burnett was thrilled to discover that Gowland was alive.

"When you're with someone in that moment, it's going to be a close call," said Burnett, owner of Inner Sun Chiropractic. "It was so great to know he made it."

The American-Statesman published a story Monday about how Gowland was searching for the "angels" that came to his rescue after he collapsed of a heart attack on March 29. He wanted to thank them, maybe buy them a beer and press them for details on what happened that day.

By Tuesday, two of the men on the scene had called him. Gowland has trouble finding the words to describe those phone calls.

"Shock," Gowland said. "Amazement. I'm talking to people who saved my life. I'm talking to real life angels."

The story behind Gowland's rescue is one that seems to defy coincidence. The Austin retiree had a heart attack in the middle of a parking lot on a Saturday afternoon and who came to his aid? A doctor who changed his cycling route at the last second. A Travis County Sheriff's Office SWAT team sniper trained in CPR. A man carrying an oxygen tank in his car for his asthmatic child.

"He was meant to live because everything came together perfectly," said Mark Knight, the sniper.

Knight was at a running clinic in the O. Henry gym when someone ran into the building asking for help. Knight rushed outside and started doing CPR. Another man counted Knight's compressions. Burnett took Gowland's pulse.

Then came the still-unidentified guy with his own oxygen tank and bag valve mask, a hand-operated device used to pump air into a person who is not breathing.

"That was such an amazing moment," Burnett said. "It was like, 'What? Are you serious right now? You have oxygen? What else do you have in your trunk?'"

In the days following the incident, both Burnett and Knight tried to find out Gowland's fate. Knight asked a medic he knew. Burnett -- who could have sworn Gowland's name tag said David and that his shirt had the word library on it -- made a few calls. Both hit dead ends.

"I finally gave up trying to find out if he made it," Knight said.

After seeing the newspaper article, both men reached out to Gowland and filled in the missing pieces of his story. Burnett says he's happy he was there to help, but he also says that a lot of other people deserve the credit for keeping Gowland alive.

"He had a lot of angels," Burnett said. "I don't think one person was a hero. I think he had a community of heroes."

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