Dramatic team effort saves heart attack victim
Published 6:27 am Tuesday, June 21, 2005
By By MARCIA STEFFENS / Niles Daily Star
NILES - One 51-year-old Granger, Ind., area man is lucky to be alive today, thanks to the combined efforts of a Niles Township volunteer firefighter and a Michigan State trooper.
The driver, identified as Michael Slisher, was lying on the passenger side of the vehicle, Ziegler said
Just moments after Ziegler stopped and put on his red light, Michigan State trooper Jeff Bedell, who was on duty, pulled over.
His eight years of training paid off.
SMCAS arrived soon on the scene and took over, taking the victim to Lakeland Hospital, Niles. They agreed the combined efforts of the two had saved the man.
After getting home, Ziegler called the station to check on the man's condition and he was told he was "doing fine" and awaiting transfer to Memorial Hospital in South Bend, Ind., where Ziegler visited him and met the grateful family.
Slisher told officers he had a vague recollection of driving before he blacked out. He didn't remember traveling across four lanes of traffic before careening off the roadway. He said he had started to have chest pains around noon. Officers stopped to help Slisher just before 5 p.m. Monday evening.
Last night, he called his former Niles Township Fire Chief, John LaMore, now a Berrien County Commissioner.
In his 25 years in service, he has seen only a few documented cases where a life was saved, including the time he rescued a girl from a burning building. "It is a rare thing," he added.
That man was lucky the two were at the right time, at the right place, with the right equipment.