ELBURN – Thanks to the quick response, CPR skills and teamwork of two Elburn police officers, the family of 59-year-old Elburn resident Nancy Wheeler was able to make it to her side to say goodbye before she passed away.

A 911 call came through a dispatcher on April 5 to the Elburn and Countryside Fire Protection District, as well as the Elburn Police Department, about a woman at home on the northeast side of town. Wheeler was unconscious and not breathing, according to reports.

Police Officers Jeff Herra and Victoria Gwizdak arrived at the Wheeler home first and – finding Wheeler unconscious and without a pulse – immediately began administering CPR. Elburn paramedics arrived soon after and were able to set up an IV and take other lifesaving measures, while Herra and Gwizdak continued to take turns administering CPR.

Twenty-eight minutes later, thanks to the efforts of the emergency responders, Wheeler regained consciousness. She was taken to Northwestern Medicine Delnor Hospital in Geneva, where hospital staff took over.

Taking the emergency lifesaving measures with Wheeler on site prior to moving her from her home to the ambulance and on to the hospital, the officers and paramedics were following a protocol recently put in place by Delnor. Recent research has shown that treating emergency cardiac patients at home with no interruption and not moving them for the first 30 minutes results in a higher survival rate, said Joseph Cluchey, chief of the Elburn and Countryside Fire Protection District.

Medical personnel were able to revive Wheeler, restore her pulse and stabilize her blood pressure. Family members were notified and rushed to the area to be with her. Her husband, Buzz, was in Indiana at the time. One son and daughter live and work in Kansas, and another son, a truck driver, was en route to Salt Lake City. All of her family members, including all five children and her husband, were able to gather around her one last time to say their goodbyes.

Twenty-four hours later, Wheeler passed away.

“Although the end result wasn’t what we would have wanted, who among us wouldn’t wish for that last chance to say goodbye to our loved one?” Cluchey said.

Cluchey came to the Village Board meeting June 5 to publicly recognize Herra and Gwizdak for giving Wheeler the extra time to see her family. “What they did made a tremendous difference in the lives of those family members,” he said.

Wheeler’s husband, Buzz, and a half dozen other family members also were there to show appreciation for their actions.

Police Chief Nick Sikora said that in most emergency calls such as this one, police officers will respond, and sometimes they get there first. He said that typically police officers are trained in basic first-aid skills, including CPR, and will help in whatever way they can.

The department also will be buying new AEDs – automated external defibrillators – this year, and personnel will be carrying the kits in their squad cars in case a need arises. Sikora said the two departments are working together on as many things as they can to serve the community, whether it’s a situation such as this, community events such as Elburn Days, the upcoming fireworks event, or working together on a new disaster preparedness plan.

Sikora praised Herra, who has been with the Elburn department since 2004, and Gwizdak, who joined the Elburn force in 2015. “They are both very dedicated,” he said.