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‘I’m here because of you’: Helmer receives life-saver award
In one sense, saving Shelly Francis’ life took a matter of minutes.
After the Heritage Lake woman went into sudden cardiac arrest early last month, husband Chuck performed CPR for 12 minutes.
When he received a call about the incident, Deputy Brian Helmer was about four minutes away from their house with an automatic external defibrillator in the back of his Putnam County Sheriff’s Department SUV.
Two minutes later and three shocks from the AED after Helmer’s arrival, Francis’ heart was beating again.
In another sense, though, what culminated on Sunday, July 7 began more than two years earlier when the sheriff’s department got serious about having up-to-date AEDs in its squad cars.
It was in May of 2017 when Sheriff Scott Stockton, along with Deputy Jeffery Freeman — a former paramedic — and Troy Pflugner of Cardiac Science approached the Putnam County Council with the idea of purchasing 10 AED units.
The council did not balk at the $8,000-plus price tag, giving PCSD the blessing to move forward.
“This is the result we were looking at when we talked about it years ago,” Pflugner said Monday afternoon.
The occasion that brought Pflugner back to the Putnam County Courthouse was Helmer being recognized for his lifesaving efforts.
The best part? Francis herself was there to present the deputy with his recognition.
“I am here because of you,” Francis said.
For his accomplishment, Helmer was given a life-saver pin and pair of recognition certificates from both the sheriff’s department and Cardiac Science.
Francis was also presented with an award to hang on her wall, a reminder of how fortunate she is to still be alive.
“For those of you who don’t know, she beat the odds,” Pflugner said. “She had, statistically, a 90-percent chance of not living.”
It was a day that started normally enough, with Shelly and Chuck Francis sitting together on their porch.
“She leaned over and said, ‘Do you mind if we don’t go out on the lake today? Because I’m not feeling so well,’” Chuck recalled.
Not thinking too much of it, he agreed. A short time later, things suddenly changed.
“She reached up and grabbed her chest, her eyes rolled back and I lost her,” Chuck said.
Retired from the military, Chuck knew CPR so he immediately started, continuing for 12 minutes until Helmer’s arrival.
“It was the longest time in my life until they arrived,” he said. “I was keeping my wife alive. I love her.”
Helmer arrived and the rest was history, though the deputy does not take all the credit for himself.
He was soon joined at the scene by responders from the Floyd Township Fire Department and an unidentified nurse from the community.
Helmer would actually like to find out who she is.
“I’m not sure what hospital she’s from, but she lives up there and she helped a lot,” the deputy said.
Having no history of heart problems before that day, the whole process has Shelly Francis looking at life a little differently.
After an extended stay in the hospital, she got home about two weeks ago.
“It’s just day by day,” she said. “I’ve started rehabilitation. Just trying to get back to what life is. I just take the challenges every day.”
In the time since the incident, Helmer has been fairly humble about the issue, saying he was just in the right place at the right time, on his way back from another call.
Whether it was a coincidence, fate or what, Francis has a slightly elevated opinion of Helmer.
“He means more to me than a lot of people can realize,” Francis said. “I’m thankful he was there.”