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Thanksgiving 2022 was a milestone for one Chisago Lake Township man, who had no trouble listing his life as something he is thankful for this year.

In early October Terry Steinmetz woke at home with big pains in his chest and his wife Lori alerted 9-1-1 quickly of the suspected heart attack.  

Lakes Region EMS and Sgt. Reggie Martin with Chisago County Sheriff’s Department arrived and tended to Steinmetz in his house, then walked him to the ambulance, where his condition worsened. He required CPR and the use of the LUCAS device which enhances manual CPR compressions.  The patient was under resuscitation for five long minutes.

The entire call was videotaped on Martin’s bodyworn camera and in a strange turn of events, Terry Steinmetz got to watch his own trauma unfold, when he met-up with the EMS crew and Sgt Martin, at Lakes Region headquarters in North Branch Monday night this week.

Terry said he just had to personally thank the EMS crew of Kayla Hedlund and Royce Hsiung and the sergeant. KARE 11 news channel was on-hand for this reunion and Steinmetz approved the station airing the bodyworn camera footage,  to spread awareness of responders and their courageous actions.  It shows inside the house, stabilizing Steinmetz, doing CPR in the ambulance and the EMTs conversing with Steinmetz.  For his part, watching video of himself when he was technically not alive was a truly strange experience. He added, “They went above and beyond” and he is so grateful.

Hedlund commented Monday that the whole entirety of the system worked that night— it was key that Lori got hold of 9-1-1 as rapidly as she did, plus the fact the ambulance is fully equipped and the area has well trained crews.

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