photo by: Douglas County Sheriff's Office

Douglas County Sheriff’s Office Corrections Officer Aaron Lathrom, Deputy Claire Sweeney and Master Deputy Troy Miller are pictured with the AED device they used to administer aid on July 22 to a Lawrence bicyclist who suffered a heart attack on a county road. The man survived due to the actions of passersby, including Lathrom, who administered CPR and the deputies arriving with the AED device.

It’s a thin line between life and death, as Douglas County Sheriff’s Deputy Claire Sweeney and Master Deputy Troy Miller know all too well.

An emergency on July 22 underscored that reality when Lawrence resident Calvin Spencer, 78, went into cardiac arrest while bicycling near Clinton Lake. Fortunately for Spencer, the near-fatal incident happened in a lucky place.

“The fact that we had so many people there that had CPR training is essentially what kept him alive,” Miller said of the 900 block of North 1000 Road, where several people with life-saving know-how just happened to be.

Spencer was initially tended to by good Samaritan Elvira Barrios Guevara, then others helped out, including Brenna Wulfkuhle and Douglas County Corrections Officer Aaron Lathrom, as well as retired Sheriff’s Lt. Kari Wempe, who all happened to be in the area. Lathrom, who was driving to Clinton Lake with his family, is also an emergency medical technician.

As they all worked together, they were able to revive Spencer’s pulse twice and to eventually save him.

In an interview with the Journal-World on Wednesday, Sweeney and Miller recounted arriving to a chaotic scene.

“(When we arrived), Aaron was doing chest compressions while Kari was getting his vitals,” Miller said.

Sweeney and Miller continued the life-saving measures with a patrol-issued automated external defibrillator, or AED. While in transit to LMH Health, Spencer was also connected to automated CPR in the ambulance.

Spencer is now on the mend after spending a few days in the hospital.

“We’ve both had CPR (incidents) before where the person didn’t survive, and this is actually the first ‘save’ I’ve ever had,” Sweeney said, “so I was extremely thankful for that.”

Sweeney said she dropped by Spencer’s house to follow up with his family several days after the medical scare, and she was pleasantly surprised to find him there.

“I was just expecting to speak with his wife, so just seeing him sitting there was surreal; I was so happy to see him,” Sweeney said. “I got into law enforcement because I wanted to help and save people. Having such a positive outcome on something that could have been tragic is amazing.”

Miller said the incident was a “reminder of why law enforcement officers do what they do.”

“This is our purpose,” he said. “If I can save one life, or make one kid’s life better, then I’ve done more than what I set out to do,” Miller said.

The deputies also noted that Spencer had identification on him listing an emergency contact, which Sweeney called “extremely helpful” and recommended for anyone out exercising alone.

“If you’re out riding or running without your ID, I won’t know who you are,” she said. “So this (document) helped us figure out his address and where we needed to go to notify his family.”

Miller said deputies and the family were still trying to identify a woman who stopped and helped so that she could be properly recognized and thanked. They asked for that person to contact the sheriff’s office at 785-841-0007.