INDIANAPOLIS — Two good Samaritans saved a Highland man's life Monday after they just so happened to be in the right place at the right time.
One of those good Samaritans was an off-duty Indiana conservation officer. Shortly after 4:30 p.m., officer Alex Neel was near the intersection of Ridge Road and Indianapolis Boulevard in Lake County when he saw several people starting to perform CPR on a man who had been removed from a vehicle.
Neel saw the person attempting CPR was struggling and stopped to help.
Neel is a four-year veteran of DNR law enforcement. When he took over, the 66-year-old man wasn't breathing and didn't have a pulse. For several minutes he and an unidentified nurse, who also stopped to help, performed chest compressions for several minutes.
Within minutes, Highland police officers arrived and helped Neel and the nurse.
When medics got there, they used an automated external defibrillator (AED). An AED is a portable device that diagnoses life-threatening heart rhythms and is used when people suffer from sudden cardiac arrests. The device sends a shock to the heart to restore a normal rhythm.
After the AED was used, the 66-year-old man's heart began beating. He was taken to Community Hospital where he is reported to be doing well.
