Cardiac Arrest Victim Attending NHSFR Rescued At Rodeo

Rock Springs, WY.     –    Bystanders and emergency first responders are being credited with saving the life of a cardiac arrest victim at the National High Schools Final Rodeo Wednesday night.

Sheriff Mike Lowell said that at about 7:30 PM, the Sweetwater County Combined Communications Center received report of a man suffering a cardiac arrest while in attendance at the NHSF Rodeo in Rock Springs.

Witnesses said the victim, a 72-year-old Indiana man, complained of chest pain, then collapsed in the grandstands.

Bystanders began applying CPR, and on-scene emergency first responders revived the man by deploying an automated external defibrillator (AED).

The victim was reported to be conscious and alert as he was loaded into the ambulance, then transported to Memorial Hospital of Sweetwater County. He has since been transferred to the University of Utah Hospital in Salt Lake City, where he is currently listed in serious but stable condition and awaiting further medical treatment.

Lowell attributed the man’s survival to the quick thinking and actions of rodeo bystanders and members of the Sweetwater County Sheriff’s Office, Rock Springs and Green River Police Departments, the Rock Springs Fire Department, and Sweetwater Medics.