The game was in the last 10 minutes of the tournament final when witnesses say Sgt. Perry Batchelor, an Altona police officer, reached down for the puck during a stoppage of play and collapsed.
The witness said 911 was called and several nurses, and an RCMP officer in the crowd were among those who sprang into action in front of the shocked crowd.
They grabbed the defibrillator from its place in the Sunflower Gardens lobby, and used it along with CPR for what witnesses say was 15 minutes until paramedics arrived.
He was taken to the Health Sciences Centre and went into surgery two days later.
The defibrillator used to save Perry Batchelor’s life was acquired by the Millennium Exhibition Centre, thanks to the hard work of Batchelor himself.
Recreation services manager Ron Epp said the reason that device was there, was Perry Batchelor.
“He was the driving force behind getting it in,” Epp said.
“A lot of stars had to align in order for me to be here,” Batchelor said from his home in Altona yesterday.
“The reality is people can have a heart attack just getting up from a chair,” he said. “So it makes sense to have them where large groups of people are or where people are exerting a lot of physical energy. (Defibrillators) save lives … they really do.”
“I’m pretty lucky,” he said. “I was feeling fine after that game, too. It just shows how quickly things can change.”
