St. Joseph Crews Honored for Saving Woman in Cardiac Arrest

(KNSI) – Eleven first responders from St. Joseph police, St. Joseph Fire and Rescue and Mayo Ambulance received Life Saving Awards Monday night for reviving a woman whose heart stopped three times.

Police Chief Dwight Pfannenstein presented the awards at the start of the St. Joseph City Council meeting. Crews were called to a St. Joseph home on July 1st after a report that a woman had fallen down the stairs and was unresponsive with an apparent head injury. Officers found her on the basement floor. She couldn’t speak, but she squeezed officers’ fingers when they asked her to.

Shortly after Mayo Ambulance arrived, the woman lost her pulse and went into full cardiac arrest. Responders started CPR and used a LUCAS device, which gives mechanical chest compressions, along with an AED and medications.

“After a pulse was regained, she went into cardiac arrest two more times. Through continued life-saving measures, a pulse again was detected.”

She was taken to St. Cloud Hospital for advanced care. The woman, Charland Campina, was in the audience Monday with her family. Pfannenstein said he has talked with Campina since the emergency.

“I’m happy to report in speaking with Charland since this incident, she is now recovering just fine.”

Campina chose not to come to the microphone but thanked her family and everyone who saved her life, adding that she knows she wouldn’t be here without them.

Honored from the St. Joseph Police Department were Deputy Chief Matt Johnson, Officer Travis Manderscheid and Officer Reece Riegel. St. Joseph Fire Chief Jeff Taufen, Assistant Chief David Salzer and Captain Ken Jacobson were also recognized, along with Mayo Ambulance paramedics Khadra Omer, Elizabeth Bursch and Andrew Woodford and EMTs Lucas Fisher and Catera Davis.

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