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07-16-2006, 01:07 AM
When Mary Ann Horsman took a different route home from the gym, she had no idea it was a decision that would help save the life of a Milwaukee police officer.
Horsman, a Milwaukee Fire Department captain, was dropping a package off at her neighbor's home about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday when she saw a man performing CPR on another man in the 800 block of W. Abbott Ave.
Horsman, a 25-year veteran and Milwaukee's first female paramedic, ran over to assist.
She didn't know that the man lying on the ground, blue from the neck up, was Shaun Lesniewski, 28, a late-shift police officer on the city's northwest side.
Lesniewski had been cutting decorative blocks for his mother's flower beds when he suddenly collapsed with the saw still spinning in his hands, said his father, Richard Lesniewski, a retired accident reconstructionist for the Police Department.
An electric surge that passed through Lesniewski's body had stopped his heart.
"I get the saw out of his hands and roll him over, and he was gone," his father said.
Lesniewski's brother-in-law unplugged the saw and called 911 on his cell phone.
Horsman applied chest compressions while Lesniewski's father administered mouth-to-mouth.
Soon a firetruck arrived. Lesniewski's heart had been stopped for three minutes.
Onboard the firetruck was paramedic firefighter Wendi Coon. Coon and the other firefighters onboard quickly hooked Lesniewski to a defibrillator and stuck a tube pumping pure oxygen down his throat.
They sent an electric charge through Lesniewski's body that brought back a slow but steady heartbeat.
Lesniewski was transported to Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center.
He regained color, and by the time he arrived at the hospital, he was conscious and talking, Coon said.
"After the run was over, they were hugging me and thanking me and I couldn't figure it out," said Horsman, who until that point thought she was helping a neighbor save a construction worker. "To find out that it's their son that we had just saved . . . it was unbelievable."
Had Horsman taken her normal route, she says, she wouldn't have seen Lesniewski.
Coon said the whole chain of events, from Lesniewski's father's having CPR training to Horsman's chance arrival at the scene, saved the officer's life.
"If it wasn't like that, he probably wouldn't have made it," Coon said. "Early CPR and early defib is what saved him."
Horsman dropped by the hospital Thursday and said Lesniewski was "doing wonderful."
Despite severe muscle pain caused by the electrical currents, and burn marks on his left thumb and palm, it appears Lesniewski will have a full recovery.
Police officers, including Lesniewski's brother, an officer in District 3, have been visiting and sending well wishes.
Richard Lesniewski chokes up with emotion as he thinks about what could have happened.
"I could tell it was not a positive outlook at all until Mary got there," he said. "The coincidence, the chain of events . . . the good Lord was watching over us."
Horsman, a Milwaukee Fire Department captain, was dropping a package off at her neighbor's home about 5:45 p.m. Tuesday when she saw a man performing CPR on another man in the 800 block of W. Abbott Ave.
Horsman, a 25-year veteran and Milwaukee's first female paramedic, ran over to assist.
She didn't know that the man lying on the ground, blue from the neck up, was Shaun Lesniewski, 28, a late-shift police officer on the city's northwest side.
Lesniewski had been cutting decorative blocks for his mother's flower beds when he suddenly collapsed with the saw still spinning in his hands, said his father, Richard Lesniewski, a retired accident reconstructionist for the Police Department.
An electric surge that passed through Lesniewski's body had stopped his heart.
"I get the saw out of his hands and roll him over, and he was gone," his father said.
Lesniewski's brother-in-law unplugged the saw and called 911 on his cell phone.
Horsman applied chest compressions while Lesniewski's father administered mouth-to-mouth.
Soon a firetruck arrived. Lesniewski's heart had been stopped for three minutes.
Onboard the firetruck was paramedic firefighter Wendi Coon. Coon and the other firefighters onboard quickly hooked Lesniewski to a defibrillator and stuck a tube pumping pure oxygen down his throat.
They sent an electric charge through Lesniewski's body that brought back a slow but steady heartbeat.
Lesniewski was transported to Aurora St. Luke's Medical Center.
He regained color, and by the time he arrived at the hospital, he was conscious and talking, Coon said.
"After the run was over, they were hugging me and thanking me and I couldn't figure it out," said Horsman, who until that point thought she was helping a neighbor save a construction worker. "To find out that it's their son that we had just saved . . . it was unbelievable."
Had Horsman taken her normal route, she says, she wouldn't have seen Lesniewski.
Coon said the whole chain of events, from Lesniewski's father's having CPR training to Horsman's chance arrival at the scene, saved the officer's life.
"If it wasn't like that, he probably wouldn't have made it," Coon said. "Early CPR and early defib is what saved him."
Horsman dropped by the hospital Thursday and said Lesniewski was "doing wonderful."
Despite severe muscle pain caused by the electrical currents, and burn marks on his left thumb and palm, it appears Lesniewski will have a full recovery.
Police officers, including Lesniewski's brother, an officer in District 3, have been visiting and sending well wishes.
Richard Lesniewski chokes up with emotion as he thinks about what could have happened.
"I could tell it was not a positive outlook at all until Mary got there," he said. "The coincidence, the chain of events . . . the good Lord was watching over us."
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07-16-2006, 11:02 AM
Thats a cool story.
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