Miracles & Heroes

Astonishing stories of courage and hope.

- Melissa Martin, Nicole Schmidt And Lucy Uprichard

Team Effort

On July 5, 2017, Steve and Kim Sawatzky, along with their two kids, decided to cut their camping trip short so they could attend Steve’s annual work picnic. The 44-year-old has served with the Winnipeg Fire Department for 13 years, and this summer’s get-together was held at the Tinkertown amusement park, just outside the city. Along with 500 firefighters and their families, the Sawatzkys enjoyed a sunny morning catching up with friends and eating ice cream.

About an hour after arriving at Tinkertown, Kim went to use the bathroom. When she returned to the picnic table where her family was sitting, she found her seven-year-old daughter, Isabella, crying. Steve was lying on the ground, surrounded by his colleagues. While Kim was away, he’d gone into cardiac arrest and collapsed. The park’s defibrillator was broken, so for the next 20 minutes, Steve was kept alive by 20 firefighters who took turns performing CPR while they waited for an ambulance to arrive.

“I kept expecting him to sit up and be okay,” Kim said. “As every minute passed, I was more and more scared that he wasn’t going to make it.”

The ambulance technicians who arrived on the scene failed to restart Steve’s heart and rushed him to the emergency room. In total, he was without a pulse for nearly an hour, but no one gave up on him. Shortly after the firefighter arrived at St. Boniface Hospital, 13 kilometres away, medics were finally able to revive him. He was then admitted to the intensive care unit and placed on a ventilator. Nine days later, he had a pacemaker put in.