"You have to have faith."
Jackie Bizek was thinking back to the Sunday of Labor Day weekend at the cottage on Clearwater Lake that she and her husband George have owned for 27 years, and about all that had to happen for her brother-in-law, Gary Holter, to survive that day.
A group of about a dozen people, including all but one of Bizek’s siblings, had just returned from a pontoon ride. They started playing yard games, and Gary and a few others began playing pickleball in a neighbor’s driveway. It was closing in on 5 p.m.
Suddenly, Gary collapsed, falling backward and striking his head on the concrete driveway. He had gone into cardiac arrest.
If not for an unusual combination of circumstances that came together almost immediately, Gary Holter would not be part of the family gathering this Christmas.
On that, there is universal agreement.
"For the guy to have the worst day of his life, he couldn’t have been more lucky, actually," said Stearns County Sheriff’s Deputy Tyler Thunstedt.
"All of the stars were aligned, that’s for sure," Bizek said.
"We’re just very fortunate," said Ann Holter, Gary’s wife of 46 years. "All I can say is I am so grateful to my family and friends and strangers, who responded to an emergency situation calmly and coolly and saved Gary’s life."
Coming together
Gary, 72, a retired salesman from Medicine Lake, remembers nothing about that family get-together, and only snippets from the three weeks before that.
"I have no recollection at all," he said. "My next memory is in the hospital."
Not that getting there was easy.
When he went down, several family members sprang into action, doing what they had been trained to do.
Mark Hughes, one of Ann’s brothers, was a 20-year veteran on the Wayzata Fire Department. He took control of the situation, Bizek said, starting CPR by doing chest compressions.
Bizek and her friend Jenifer Zipf took turns providing mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. They had each been nurses on the operating team at the Minneapolis VA for more than 35 years. The last 20 of those years were spent on the heart team.
Ann’s brother Steve and his wife Mary Jo called 911, and found ice for Gary’s head wound. Hughes’ wife, Sue, kept the dirt road clear of trailers and cars so the ambulance would have access, and Zipf’s husband, Wally, drove out to the end of the dirt road to flag down the ambulance.
"It was a real group effort, along with the two deputies that showed up," Ann Holter said.
In addition to having so many people who knew what to do in an emergency, there was an element of luck involved.
The Bizeks’ cabin was in Fairhaven Township, at the far southeastern edge of Stearns County. It is the largest county in the entire southern half of Minnesota, yet when Thunstedt got the call he was checking out a lead less than a mile and a half away.
Within two minutes, he was on the scene.
"The planets were aligned for me that day," Gary said. "We were a little bit remote. They had their work cut out for them for awhile."
Thunstedt instructed Hughes to continue administering CPR, while he hooked up the automated external defibrillator. An AED is a portable device that assesses heart rhythms and can send an electric shock to the heart to try to restore a normal rhythm.
"They primarily come into use when the heart is working, but not the right way. It will conduct a shock to basically get it back in a normal pattern," the officer said.
For the first time in the five years Thunstedt has worked with AEDs, it advised him to shock a patient. Not just once either, but four times.
Thunstedt could recall maybe a dozen times when he has encountered someone in cardiac arrest. None of the other situations have resulted in this outcome, he said.
"The officer had an AED in his car, thank God, and I think (Gary) ended up being shocked seven times between the cabin and the hospital," Bizek said.
"And it worked. It doesn’t always work. I know, being a nurse, and my brother knows that, too," she said. "I think Gary went to the other side for a minute or two, but there were a lot of people cheering him on."
As it turned out, there was even a medical helicopter getting fuel at the St. Cloud airport, and Deputy Andy Struffert set up a landing area within a mile of the Bizek’s cabin.
"It was really the ‘right place, right time’ sort of thing," Thunstedt said. "It was lucky that everything fell into place as well as it did."
Recovery road
Gary’s adventure wasn’t over. As his sister-in-law said, he needed use of the defibrillator a few more times before getting to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale.
Once there, Gary says he was put in a cooling unit to lower his body temperature, and once he was stabilized, underwent a triple bypass procedure. He spent three weeks in the hospital.
Bizek said her brother-in-law likes to have fun, and the circumstances didn’t change that.
"I’ll tell you he had those nurses laughing in the hospital, although he doesn’t remember it," she said.
Gary had been active, which is why what happened came as such a shock. He had been playing pickleball three times a week, and doing water aerobics twice a week. In August he and Ann had biked 80 or 90 miles on a trip to Vancouver, and were just returning in time for the Labor Day party.
"I remember only one day of that vacation," Gary said. "I do think about how lucky I was to not have this happen when I was up in Canada. If it’s going to happen, it was fortunate to have it happen when it did."
The memory has returned, except for that window of a couple weeks, and he is well on his way to recovering, even if it’s not at the pace he would like.
"It was slow the first month. That was a long month. The second month was less long, and actually I feel pretty good now," Gary said. "My chest is pretty sore. but my energy is coming back, so it tells me my heart’s working. I’m looking forward to being able to doing things.
"I would love to be swimming and playing pickleball right now," he said. "I’ve watched more daytime TV than I care to think about."
The U.S. Marine Reserves veteran is grateful for all that Ann has done to speed his recovery.
"The effort for this whole thing fell on my wife, helping me get back to somewhat normalcy," he said about the woman he met while they were students at St. Cloud State University. "It puts a lot of work in her court."
Reuniting everyone
All of the people involved were summoned Nov. 14 to the regular meeting of the Stearns County Board in St. Cloud for a ceremony honoring Thunstedt, who was presented with a lifesaving commendation award.
The deputy received a certificate and a commendation bar to be worn on his uniform, while Bizek, Hughes and Zipf received award certificates.
"It was nice," Gary said. "I got to shake his hand and tell him thank you, and so did everyone who was with me. We all appreciated what those guys did. It was truly life saving."
The last time Thunstedt had seen Gary, he was prone, bleeding and unresponsive. As much as Gary was looking forward to their meeting, it was every bit as meaningful to Thunstedt.
"It was a pretty humbling experience for me and my wife to meet him and shake his hand, and to see his wife be so grateful," Thunstedt said. "That is probably the highlight of my career. That makes the bad days worth it.
"In all reality, you could have saved the pin and the plaque. Just the opportunity to shake his hand and get a hug from his wife meant everything to me."
The memory of that Labor Day weekend lingers for everyone who was involved, and they all have become believers of the various methods that saved a man’s life.
"Tell your readers to take CPR training," Ann said. "It could be a matter of life or death."
Her sister delivered the same message, saying it isn’t that difficult to learn and there are classes everywhere. She also stressed the importance of defibrillators.
"I went to the gym the next week and I asked my instructor, ‘Do you have an AED machine around here? Does anybody know where it is?’ She had to think for a minute, but they did," Bizek says. "I made an announcement because we’re all older in that class, and we all need to know where it is."
The person who had the bypass also had a message.
"After it happened to me, I think most of the people who were part of the Labor Day picnic went out and had these personal chest x-rays you can buy, to see if they were safe from this. Because it was totally unexpected. It got everybody’s attention.
"I’m now a strong proponent. I would get one of those every couple of years," Gary said.
A memorable holiday
With the holidays upon us, Gary and Ann are cherishing each day they have together, and making the most of it.
"It’s a second chance – not that the first chance was bad," Ann said. "But I think we’re both kinder and more patient with each other. We are just really grateful."
The family gathering for Thanksgiving was certainly special this year, and this Christmas promises to rank among the most special ones. Ann says it will be more relaxed, and they plan to enjoy every minute of it.
"There was some thanks given. We had something to be really thankful for this Thanksgiving," Gary said. "I am a very lucky man."
They have thrown themselves into the holiday season and have many events to attend.
"We have a lefse party tonight. Gary gets the dough for the lefse, and he makes the meatballs," Ann said.
Swedish meatballs?
"They are Gary’s meatballs," she replied. "They wouldn’t be Swedish anyway, because he’s Norwegian."
The Norwegian and the German could not be happier.
"We went out dancing last Saturday night at Schullers. It has been there longer than us," she said of the Golden Valley tavern. "It was the best Christmas ever."
She kids her sister about whether they will ever get another opportunity to come back to Annandale, and go to Jackie and George’s cabin. "I don’t know if we will ever be invited back!" Ann said.
Jackie laughed when she heard that, and said that she can’t wait to host them next summer for a less eventful visit. But first she is having them to her house in Chanhassen this week for their Christmas celebration.
"I’m sure we’ll have a toast to Gary, that is for sure," Bizek said. "We’ve all said it, we’re all so glad he’s still here.
"He is our miracle this year."