st. paul

Ten-day-old Sullivan (Sully) Sportel was a bit cranky Thursday night so about 7:30 his dad decided a stroll was in order.

"It was nice Dairy Queen night, ya know. There were a lot of people out," Ryan Sportel recalled Friday. A friend rode by on his bike. And Amy Sportel joined her husband and son outside along with Mesa, the family's boxer.

"All of a sudden we heard a big BANG!" Ryan said. "Amy saw it actually, it was just half a block down. Amy was like, let's go down there and take a look."

A 60-year-old man, driving east on the 1600 block of Hague Avenue had crashed a Ford Explorer into a parked car in St. Paul's Mac-Groveland area. He was buckled in. No pulse. Not breathing.

A crowd gathered, but nobody was quite sure what to do, the couple said.

Amy, a nurse in the intensive care unit at United Hospital in St. Paul, immediately recognized that the man had had a heart attack.

"So Ryan just took Sully and handed him off to some stranger," Amy said with a laugh.

Said Ryan, "I didn't know who this guy was, but he looked friendly enough, so I just said, 'hang onto the baby.' "

Ryan, a nurse-anesthetist at Fairview Red Wing Medical Center, and a bystander lifted the man out of the vehicle and set him on the street. Then Ryan and Amy traded off keeping the man's airway open and doing CPR -- old hat to these two.

"People had already called 911, of course," Ryan said. "We did CPR for a couple minutes and then the paramedics showed up.

"Meanwhile, Sullivan's crying in the background, and Mesa's trying to see what's going on. Another neighbor grabbed the dog for us."

Paramedics used a defibrillator a couple of times, then started an IV and "gave him some meds," Ryan said.

The Sportels said they were astounded when the man awoke, then began moving around and talking.

"I don't ever see that," Amy said.

"You don't ever see that," Ryan added.

"Not in a defib arrest like that. You just don't," Amy said.

"When they told him he was going to the hospital and what had happened, he was like, 'I don't wanna go to the hospital,'" Ryan said.

Objection notwithstanding, the man was taken to Regions Hospital. Amy Sportel said police called her Thursday night and again Friday morning to tell her the man is doing well. His name has not been released.

Police Chief John Harrington was full of praise Friday for the Sportels and the paramedics.

"There is little doubt that two caring citizens acting solely for the benefit of another and some phenomenally trained, equipped and skilled paramedics played a huge role in saving this man's life," the chief said.

"I don't believe in serendipity, but the right people were at the right place at the right time," Harrington said.

The Sportels said they don't know the man they helped save.

"I'm glad he's doing well, though," Amy said. "I hope that we can meet him sometime."

Pat Pheifer • 612-741-4992 Paul Walsh • 612-673-4482