Quick action by husband, Council Bluffs firefighters helps save woman's life after heart attack
Jerry Wiser knew something was out of the ordinary when his wife, Kris, told him a little after 6 a.m. on Oct. 23 that she didn’t feel well and wasn’t going to work.

“It’s the one thing we can count on, is her going to work,” Wiser said.

Shortly afterward, she texted him from inside their Council Bluffs home saying she needed his help. She was feeling sick to her stomach. He asked her whether he needed to stay home for a bit. When she said yes, he knew something was wrong. He texted his boss to tell him he wouldn’t be in.

When he turned around, he saw his wife lying on the bed, gasping. When he couldn’t find her pulse, Wiser, a volunteer firefighter in Tabor, Iowa, called 911 and started chest compressions.

A minute later, firefighters from Council Bluffs Fire Station No. 5 arrived and took over. They took Kris Wiser to Jennie Edmundson Hospital. Altogether, the then-58-year-old crop insurance underwriter required 62 electric shocks to keep her heart beating. Doctors determined she’d had a heart attack, opened a blocked artery in Wiser’s heart and temporarily placed a pump in her aorta to get more blood into the organ so it could start to recover.

Wiser went home 13 days later. On Saturday, she and her husband and more than a half-dozen other family members took lunch to the fire station to thank firefighters for their efforts.

“I can’t thank you guys enough,” Jerry Wiser said. “You guys gave me my best friend back.”

“I’m so thankful,” Kris Wiser said. “I wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for you guys and (continued) care” at Jennie Edmundson.

Council Bluffs Fire Capt. Jeff Thielen said it was “super important” that Jerry Wiser was there and that he started cardiopulmonary resuscitation immediately.

Indeed, the Wisers stressed the importance of everyday citizens learning CPR. They and the firefighters, however, said a lot of factors came together that day to contribute to Kris Wiser’s survival.

“Everybody did everything they were trained for, and it showed,” Jerry Wiser said.

Firefighter Cody Kempf said the crew arrived so quickly because they were returning from another call. Otherwise, they would not have arrived for another two or three minutes.

“You maintained circulation long enough for us to get there,” he told Jerry Wiser.

Overall, only about 10% of those who suffer heart attacks outside hospitals survive the event, according to the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute. But survival rates improve if bystanders start CPR immediately. Studies have shown that bystander CPR can double or triple the chances of survival, according to the American Heart Association.

Both Jerry and Kris Wiser, who turned 59 in the hospital, are familiar with the odds.

Kris Wiser said her sister died of a heart attack in her sleep at age 59 in 2018. Jerry Wiser has been a volunteer firefighter with various Iowa volunteer departments for 28 years. He also works part time as an firefighter instructor for the State of Iowa, working mostly with volunteer squads.

Rick Benson, the fire department’s EMS operations officer, said Kris Wiser was the department’s fifth such save of the year. The department since has had a sixth. Over the past 20 years, the department has revived between 30% and 46% of the cardiac arrest patients it has treated, well above the national average of between 10% and 12%.

But the crew had its work cut out for it, as did hospital staff.

Soon after Jerry Wiser called 911, he heard firefighters in the living room asking where he was. He’d left the door unlocked for Kris Wiser’s son, Jake McCoid, whom he’d called after his wife became ill. Symptoms of heart attacks can present differently from those in men. While warning signs in men are more likely to include chest pain and pain in the arm, neck or jaw, women may experience chest pressure, abdominal pain, sweating, dizziness and nausea, among other symptoms.

The firefighters began a series of lifesaving measures and medications. That included fitting Kris Wiser with a LUCAS device, which delivers consistent chest compressions and frees firefighters for other tasks. They would get a pulse — it was strong, a good sign — and then lose it. The firefighters shocked Wiser a total of seven times during the 19 minutes she was in their care.

Hospital staff took over once they arrived at Jennie Edmundson. They, too, had difficulty getting her heart into rhythm.

Dr. Robert Armbruster, a cardiologist at Jennie Edmundson, said he told Jerry Wiser at one point that his wife’s condition was not looking good. Her relatively young age kept the team going.

Once the team got Kris Wiser to the cardiac catheterization lab, Armbruster opened her right coronary artery, which supplies blood to part of the heart, and placed a stent. He also inserted the balloon pump.

By evening, she was in the intensive care unit but showing signs of improvement. Family members had gathered from as far away as Texas.

“It’s just been like a miracle almost that she came through,” Armbruster said. “It was that impressive.”

Kris Wiser said she feels great now. She has undergone cardiac rehabilitation as well as physical, occupational and speech therapy to address some lingering issues, mostly with eye-hand coordination on her left side. She’s eager to catch up with Christmas shopping and get back to work.

Meanwhile, her son, as well as her 10-year-old grandson, now want to learn CPR. Based on Kris Wiser’s family history — her parents also have survived heart attacks — her son also has gotten checked for heart risks.

Jerry Wiser said his wife’s story already has circulated widely among firefighter instructors across the country.

“If it can help anybody,” Kris Wiser said, “I want it out there.”