Dan Caplis, Denver lawyer best known as a conservative talk-show host and Ches Thompson, a 48-year-old ob/gyn, hadn’t actually met while they and about five other dads were playing football with their kids on the sunny Thanksgiving afternoon.
Thompson suddenly lurched forward and fell on his face.
Dr. Scott Bainbridge, a spine specialist also playing in the game, rolled Thompson onto his back, checked his signs and started CPR in the muddy field.

Dan Caplis the Saviour
Caplis, meantime, bolted to his SUV. By the time he returned with his defibrillator, Thompson was flatlining.
“Stay calm. Follow these voice instructions. Make sure 911 is called now. Begin by exposing patient’s bare chest and torso,” began the recorded voice in the machine.
Caplis followed the cues, placed the pads on Thompson’s chest and stood back as the AED shocked him with power Caplis describes as “ferocious.”
“Waiting to see if he would react, those were the longest seconds of my life,” he says.
Before Caplis and Bainbridge attached the AED to Thompson, he wasn’t breathing and didn’t have a pulse. According to Cherry Hills Village Police it took only one shock from the AED to resuscitate Dr. Thompson.
Thompson regained consciousness quickly and strongly. The father of two boys is expected to make a full recovery at Swedish Medical Center for treatment. .
“I was in the right place at the right time with the right people,” he said Monday.
“It would have felt so incredibly helpless to have been there without the machine,” adds Caplis, co-host of KHOW’s Caplis and Craig Silverman show. He’s had the defibrillator for a year and a half because of another of his jobs, as a little league baseball coach.
“You can know nothing about CPR or AEDs and they can still save somone. They’re that good,” he said.
Tags: CPR+AED, Doctor, Events, Football, Life Saved, Sports, Sports Field
















