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having a pretty signi cant medical event,” he said. “(We) could tell right away — we assessed real quickly — that we needed to start CPR. So that’s what we did, and more people started showing up as well.”

Chase said the emergency happened during the courts’ lunch break, making it possible for many deputies, who otherwise would have been in trials, to respond to the scene.

Several o cers performed CPR on Bennett while others gathered witness statements and cleared pathways in preparation for South Metro Fire Rescue’s arrival. ey performed CPR for about 10 minutes before paramedics and emergency medical technicians arrived.

Bennett had two more heart attacks that day, one in the ambulance and one at the hospital.

Early intervention

Jens Pietrzyk, division chief of emergency medical services at South Metro Fire Rescue, told the group at the March 9 event that his department sees about 500 cases of cardiac arrest per year. Of that, only about 10% end in full recovery like Bennett’s case did.

One of the most important factors in being able to successfully resuscitate someone when they have cardiac arrest is early intervention.

“When somebody gets to the hospital after cardiac arrest, if they’ve had early CPR, if they’ve had early interventions, then we have “She’s the rst one that we actually ties used a bag valve mask to help with breathing and employed an automated external de brillator, which didn’t call for a shock. Eventually, her pulse returned. South Metro Fire Rescue paramedics gave Bennett a breathing tube and she began to move.

“Jury duty saved my life”

In Kohl’s eyes, Bennett’s attitude is one of the reasons she survived. “ ere’s been evidence that shows having a good attitude in your recovery helps patients recover quicker and better,” he said. “And she’s a perfect example — her attitude’s infectious. And if there were more people with her attitude, the world would be a better place.”

Bennett said she hopes her experience inspires more people to get trained in CPR, as it truly can save lives. Before it saved hers, she started the CPR training program at RTD, where she worked for almost 40 years.

“I just wish it’s the kind of thing that everyone could learn to do,” she said. “I’m very much a proponent of CPR, rst aid, and all of those types of things. And I never knew it would go full circle and come back — that one day I would need it, and I had a whole band of angels there who came to my rescue.”

While most people dread receiving a jury summons, Bennett will never look at that civic role the same way. “People have said ‘I’ll do anything to get out of jury duty,’” she said. “Jury duty saved my life — because if I had not been at jury duty at that time, I would have been at home alone. And the outcome could have been totally di erent.”