A few local heroes get their due from sheriff

Guy Best just wanted to cast a line in the St. Croix River this summer, and Jerry Kortus is glad he did.

"I took him fishing and he ends up saving my life," said Kortus, 43, whose heart stopped at the boat landing at St. Croix Bluffs Regional Park on July 11.

Best and another rescuer who revived Kortus, Nancy Crowell of Rosemount, were honored this week for their actions, receiving Washington County lifesaving awards Wednesday night from Sheriff Bill Hutton.

Kortus, who is Best's neighbor in West St. Paul, said his heart stopped for 27 minutes. His revival was all the luckier, he said, because Best had just completed paramedic training and Krowell is a nurse. Krowell and her husband were waiting to launch a boat when Kortus went into cardiac arrest.

Also recognized for helping save Kortus were Michael and Aaron Eggert.

Other recipients of the Sheriff's Office annual awards:

• Exceptional Service Citation: To members of the investigations division for their work in tracking down the assailant who several times shot Lake Elmo resident Julie Bever, who survived, in an attempted carjacking in 2003. The citation also included the Hudson, Wis., Police Department, the Minneapolis Police Department, the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension, the Polk County, Wis., Sheriff's Office, and the Wisconsin FBI.

• Meritorious Service Award: To longtime jail tutor Dorothy Haas, now 86, and to corrections officer Michael Hemquist for his training work in the jail.

• Sheriff's Certificate of Appreciation: To citizen Steven Kuzj for his part in attempting to save a drowning man who later died.

• Lifesaving Award: To deputies Luke Garvey and Steven Wittl for resuscitating a man dying of a heart attack; to deputy Chris Majeski for saving a man from carbon monoxide poisoning,, and to citizen Janelyn Navarro for providing aid and comfort to Bever after the Lake Elmo shooting.

• Letter of Excellence: To deputies Jason Stafne, Matthew O'Hara, Bjorn Erickson, Nick Loperfido, Jamie Jackson, Joe Seidel and Shane Wilson for extraordinary service while on duty; to corrections officer Karen Davis for inventing a system to monitor no-contact orders; to corrections officer Donna Hemquist for her monitoring of jail medications, and to dispatcher Matthew Johnson for his skillful handling of a 911 call from a 12-year-old boy reporting his father's resuscitation efforts of the boy's twin sister.

Kevin Giles • 612-673-4432