Health & Medicine

83-Year-Old Iowa Man who Died for 15 Minutes Saved by Fire Chief

Kathleen Lees
First Posted: Mar 20, 2014 01:25 PM EDT

Iowa resident Done Roese of Pomeroy was enjoying a night out on Friday when he collapsed due to a major heart attack.

The 83-year-old man technically died on the dance floor, according to the Des Moines Register. Fortunately, he was rescued by Tony Collins, an assistant fire chief for the Clive Fire Department who was at the same event--Kenny's Pub, which was celebrating its 53rd birthday. He, along with an emergency room nurse, a paramedic, a firefighter and a military veteran were all at the event to help save his life.

Yet for the 15 minutes that Collin was resuscitated, he allegedly dead on the dance floor. 

According to The New York Daily News, though Collin was already two beers in at the party, he went on to help Roese who was without a pulse at the beginning of resuscitation.

"Doing something is better than doing nothing," Collins said, via the news organization. "It was very sobering."

As Roese suffered from a heart attack known as a "widow maker," officials note that his survival chances were slim. According to the various reports, only around 1 percent of victims survive such incidences. But for Roese, luck was on his side.

Collins performed 100 chest compressions per minute before a pulse was soon established by medical officials who arrived later.

Later during recovery, Roese went on to thank Collins for saving his life.

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