By Kevin Haas
Rock River Current
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LOVES PARK — This week, Calvin Urbanowitz reunited with his coworkers at City Hall for the first time since they helped restart his heart and pull him back from the brink of death.
It has been over a month since Urbanowitz, a 64-year-old plumbing and HVAC inspector for the city, collapsed while shoveling snow on a walkway outside the city’s headquarters. His heart stopped and his skin turned pale, but the fast reaction of Juan Terre and other employees and rescue workers of the “city with a heart” got Urbanowitz’s heart pumping again.
“Whenever I see Juan, I’m going to be appreciating that he saved my life,” Urbanowitz said Monday in an interview at City Hall. “It feels pretty amazing to make it back again after dying.”
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Terre, a code enforcement officer for the city, was the first to rush to aid Urbanowitz. He was pulling his vehicle into the City Hall parking lot around 7:40 a.m. Jan. 26 when he saw Urbanowitz shoveling the fresh snow.
“By the time it took me to turn around and back into the stall and get out and walk around he was on the ground,” Terre said.
Terre, 50, who is certified in CPR, put that training into practice for the first time. He checked for a pulse, and after finding none he began to conduct chest compressions. That quick action, Fire Chief James Hart said, helped move oxygen throughout Urbanowitz’s body. Without that immediate CPR, Urbanowitz survival rate drops to just 12%, Hart said. With it, the rate rises to about 65%.
“He’s essentially doing what the heart should have been doing, he’s just doing it mechanically and externally providing oxygen to his brain and all the other vital organs,” Hart said.
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Terre also called 911, and Mayor Greg Jury called Hart on his cell phone as both men tried to get paramedics on hand as fast as possible.
Loves Park firefighters and paramedics Justin Mayton and Bryor Purdy were on the scene minutes later to take over the life-saving effort. And Nate Bruck, the city’s economic development and planning manager, sprinted down the hallway to deliver an automated external defibrillator used to deliver an electrical shock to put Urbanowitz’s heart back in rhythm.
“The way everybody on staff here moved quickly … it was amazing,” Terre said.
“I did not get a pulse,” he said. “I must have done compressions for probably two, three minutes before the first police and EMT showed up. Then, all of a sudden, they all came all at once. So at that point then I just I backed off and let the professionals do what they had to do.”
The effort worked. Urbanowitz, per doctors orders, is taking things easy for about two more weeks but he expects to return to work shortly after that.
“I was dead,” he said. “Now I’m able to walk and talk and get around just fine. I feel normal.”
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Urbanowitz said he doesn’t remember any of the events of that day, or anything for six days after it happened. But he has heard stories from his wife and others about the efforts to save his life.
On Monday, Terre picked up Urbanowitz at his home to bring him to City Hall to see his coworkers and speak with the Rock River Current. Urbanowitz was quick to greet Terre with a hug and a thank you.
“I got out of my car to go ring the doorbell,” Terre said. “By the time I came out of the car he was already there with his arms out.”
This article is by Kevin Haas. Email him at khaas@rockrivercurrent.com or follow him on Twitter at @KevinMHaas.