5 lives changed in a brush with death

In a pickup basketball game, Gary Jarvis jumped for the rebound. The heart attack that seized him mid-air would later stop him from remembering that leap -- as well as the heroism of four nurses who saved his life.

On the gym floor of Berean Baptist Church, the 59-year-old Burnsville man lay dying as the nurses ran to him from the sanctuary, where they were readying for their weekly Bible study group. They had trained, at the urging of their nondenominational network called the Bible Study Fellowship, for such an emergency.

The portable defibrillator at the church didn't work, but the off-duty nurses performed CPR until paramedics arrived. The story of Jarvis' rescue from biological death has been sent around the world on the Internet as the Bible Study Fellowship encourages its members to train for emergencies and check that portable defibrillators in churches are in working order.

Recently, as the Burnsville City Council honored the nurses for valor, Jarvis thanked them, too:

"At this time of year, we hear a lot about angels," Jarvis told the women.

"Angels make announcements, angels sing songs of worship and praise, but I now think that angels do CPR. You are my angels of rescue; you are my heroes. I will be forever grateful. And my gratitude will be especially evident to me this Christmas when I see the joy in the faces of my family, in the faces of my grandchildren. I will enjoy another Christmas because you were quick and capable."

Connie Perrin, a registered nurse from Prior Lake who led the rescue, said she's elated that the nurses were able to help keep a family intact.

A grandfather of six, Jarvis said his last memory that October eve was sitting out during the weekly men's game so a boy could play with his father.

Perrin, a labor and delivery nurse at Fairview Ridges in Burnsville, was in the sanctuary, setting up for the Bible study group, which draws about 200 women.

About 6:40 p.m., a man ran into the sanctuary crying out: "We have a man down! We need help!"

The study group's emergency plan kicked in. Perrin bolted into the gym. She saw men trying to pick up Jarvis's limp body and told them to set him down and roll him over. The nurse laid her fingers on his neck, searching for the feel of blood rhythmically coursing through the carotid artery.

Nothing. He had no pulse.

As Perrin dug out an oxygen mask, Adams began compressing. A home-care nurse who works with children, she had been trained but had never done CPR on a person. Her own heart raced.

One man had called 911, and another fetched the church's automatic external defibrillator. The nurses pulled up Jarvis' shirt, ready to try to jump-start his heart. But the batteries had been checked so often that they had no juice.

"Resume CPR!" Perrin said.

Two more registered nurses, Shawn Dietz of Elko and Kim Lorence of Apple Valley, ran into the gym. Dietz took over compressions. Perrin kept counting in a fast meter. Adams prayed in Jarvis' ear.

The other basketball players looked on.

"Pray!" Perrin told them.

Minutes later, paramedic Andy Hamlin and three other Burnsville firefighters rushed in. Hamlin often sees people attempting resuscitation, but in 17 years on the job, he said, this was the best he'd ever seen. The nurses worked in perfect tandem.

"This man had everything going for him," Hamlin said. "First, he had a cardiac arrest in a church; I can't think of a better place to have one. Secondly, he had those highly skilled nurses who were there."

The paramedics found Jarvis' heart fluttering but not pumping. They hooked up their defibrillator and sent a shock across his chest.

Jarvis' heartbeat resumed. He clenched his jaw. And then, he gasped.

"I'm a Christian, so I believe this is a miracle that these ladies were there, and God had his hand in it," Jarvis said. "It could have happened on the way home. It could have happened in the night. But it happened where there was help."

Two weeks after his near death, Jarvis and wife Jennifer visited the Bible study group. He carried flowers for the nurses, who rushed to him, overjoyed to see him in good health.

"It was just the most beautiful gift from God," Adams said.