Three women earned the Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue Citizen Life Safety Award for saving the life of a man at their YMCA last year.
Fond du Lac Fire/Rescue presented the award to Vicky Raddatz, Jacqui Kaufman, and Jennie Mildebrandt, which is given to a person (or persons) outside the department who has been involved in a life-saving effort at an emergency scene before EMS arrival.
The three women were all working out at the YMCA on January 11, 2016 when they saw Gary Gerner collapse.
Raddatz, a physical education teacher at Roberts Elementary School in Fond du Lac, and Kaufman, an emergency department nurse from St. Joseph's Hospital in West Bend, started CPR after they could not find a pulse.
Shortly after CPR was initiated and 911 called, YMCA employee Jennie Mildebrandt retrieved an automatic external defibrillator (AED). She shocked Gary’s heart twice in between rounds of CPR by Raddatz and Kaufman.
Shortly after, Fond du Lac Police Department officers took over CPR until FDL Fire/Rescue personnel arrived on scene. At this time, Gary still did not have a pulse, but after multiple shock and medications, a pulse was regained.
He was then transported to St. Agnes Hospital where he was treated and stabilized.
