MANKATO — If not for his fellow alumni in the Meyer Hall meeting room, the final words of Bob Heidenreich’s life would have been about how much he cherishes Bethany Lutheran College.
“This was actually Bob’s first meeting on the Alumni Board,” said Jake Krier, who was one of those in the room. “He got up and gave his introduction … expressing what Bethany means to him and the effect it had on his life.”
Heidenreich, 83, aced his introductory remarks that Saturday morning. Did “an awesome job” in Krier’s words. Nailed it like a game-winner at the buzzer. Nothing but net.
“That’s what they tell me,” said Heidenreich, who has no recollection of the speech, of the meeting or of the remainder of that autumn weekend.
He remembers entering Meyer Hall on Saturday morning, Oct. 26. His next memory is a Rochester hospital intensive care unit two days later.
‘A special place’
Even if Heidenreich doesn’t recall exactly what was going through his mind after reaching Meyer Hall, it’s not hard to guess. As a newcomer to the Bethany Lutheran College Alumni Association Board, representing students who attended in the 1960s, he knew he’d have to talk a bit about himself and about why he wanted to continue to serve the school.
So he was likely thinking about Bob the Bethany basketball player, part of the school’s Basketball Hall of Fame. And there would have been thoughts about Bob becoming the beau of Ruth Oesleby, that Bethany co-ed from the class of ‘64 who agreed to marry him. And about Bob the student, contemplating a future job as a teacher and basketball coach, who would go on to win nearly 400 games at a pair of Wisconsin high schools and is now a member of that state’s Basketball Hall of Fame.
By the 1980s, he was Bob the proud Bethany parent when his daughters attended his alma mater. That role continued into the next century when half of his grandkids decided to enroll at BLC.
In retirement, the Heidenreichs moved back to Mankato and now live in a home that’s barely a three-point shot from the Bethany campus. Looking to stay busy, he took a part-time gig with Lake Crystal Coaches, specializing in driving college kids to out-of-town events.
“I think I drove the MSU volleyball team for eight years, every away game and tournament,” he said, adding that he transported Gustavus Adolphus teams, too.
But more often the not, the young adults filling his bus were Bethany athletes and members of the BLC band or choir, and he became a familiar face to another generation of BLC students
“Everybody knew Bob the Bus Driver,” said Krier, Bethany’s director of alumni relations. “He holds a special place in a lot of people’s hearts.”
‘A heroic event’
Heidenreich’s connection to generations of Bethany alums made Oct. 26 all the more traumatic and emotional for the people gathered for the Alumni Association’s fall semester board meeting. The problem began shortly after he finished his remarks and walked to the back of the room.
“Don Westphal identified that Bob wasn’t doing well,” Krier said of the 1987 Bethany grad and former athletic director.
Heidenreich was still on his feet but seemed to be in a daze. Krier went back and, with board Chair Alyssa Messner, put an arm around him. They felt him begin to collapse and eased him to the floor.
Almost as soon as he went down, the rest of the room stood up in a remarkable way — enough so that board members Donald Lehne and Carrie Ketel Opheim were granted the Citizen Life Saving Award by the city of Mankato Monday. Three others — Ramon Pinero, Derek Peterson and Krier — received the Citizen Appreciation Award.
Krier thinks the list could have grown to two dozen.
“We had 24 people in the room, and every one jumped in to support the situation in some way,” he said.
In one respect, the first first-responder was there even before Westphal and Krier called 911.
Lehne, class of ‘87, is a retired Mankato fire commander.
“He came down and kind of assessed the situation,” said Krier, who had previously noticed where Meyer Hall’s automated external defibrillator was located.
“I just took off and grabbed the AED machine upstairs,” he said. “I would say within 90 seconds, 2 minutes, we were able to give Bob the shocks.”
Lehne initiated the three AED shocks and then orchestrated CPR, with Opheim, class of ‘97, working the breathing tube.
“Don would do the compressions and tell Carrie when to breath,” Krier said.
Pinero (class of 2003) stabilized Heidenreich’s head and Peterson (class of 2013) helped check for vital signs. Someone in the room thought to call Heidenreich’s wife and daughter at their nearby home, and the women were on hand even before the emergency responders.
Westphal and others went outside to greet the EMS crews and guide them to the quickest route to the meeting room.
And the Bethany alumni board’s membership, not surprisingly, includes a couple of ministers, who immediately assumed their role.
“We’re a religious school,” Krier said. “And many people were leading in prayer as it was going on.”
Others, he said, served as cheerleaders for the old coach: “’C’mon Bob. Stay with us.’”
So that was the scene — rather than stunned and panicked bystanders — that Mankato firefighters found when they arrived, according to Clifton’s description.
Firefighters Matt Jackson and Matt Goodrich relieved Lehne, performing chest compressions using a mechanical LUCAS device. Jackson and firefighter Greg Hubbard took over airway management. The firefighters, who each received the city’s Medical Intervention Award for their efforts, continued to assist after ambulance staff arrived to transport Heidenreich to the Mankato hospital, just two blocks from the Bethany campus.
‘Didn’t quite want it to end’
Despite the valiant attempts in Meyer Hall to save Heidenreich, his prognosis was dire.
Along with the trio of defibrillation shocks administered at Bethany, he got a couple more from doctors at the Mankato hospital, who were in contact with specialists at the Mayo Clinic.
“They said to get me there as soon as possible,” Heidenreich said. “They were basically giving me Last Rites here in Mankato.”
He was airlifted to Rochester, where doctors told his family he had a 25% chance of surviving. Even if he beat those odds, they said there would likely be months of recuperation in the hospital and probably some brain damage.
“They weren’t giving me much of a chance to survive.”
Heidenreich’s daughters and sons-in-law understood how grim the situation was. He thinks Ruth was mostly in shock that weekend.
Or maybe she, like him, just wasn’t willing for that heartbreaking weekend to be the final chapter of a romance that began in the early 1960s.
“We’ve been married for 62 years,” he said. “That’s a long run. And we didn’t quite want it to end yet.”
On that Sunday, while Heidenreich was in a medically induced coma in a Rochester ICU, the local Lutherans were keeping busy — not just on the Bethany campus and in Mankato churches but also in New Ulm, where his son-in-law is a pastor. So the prayers were flowing up and down the Minnesota River Valley.
“I know we had hundreds of people praying for me,” Heidenreich said.
And after that day of rest … “I came to on Monday. They asked me to move my arms and stuff like that. And I could.”
‘I wouldn’t have made it’
As the tests continued, the lead doctor could hardly believe what he was seeing.
“He was just amazed,” Heidenreich said. “And he said a couple of things that stayed with me. The first was, if there hadn’t been such good emergency care, I wouldn’t have made it. And second, he couldn’t say what saved me. It was a miracle.”
And the 83-year-old with a history of heart problems who had just endured a massive cardiac arrest didn’t need the anticipated months of hospitalization. After eight days in Rochester, he headed home.
So Heidenreich was there for his great-grandchild’s baptism in November. He made sure to attend the makeup meeting of the Alumni Association Board — the Dec. 20 resumption of the postponed Oct. 26 meeting. And on Monday night, he was able to share his progress once again when he and his extended family joined most of the alumni board in packing the Mankato City Council chambers.
“I’m at least 95% back, maybe more than that,” he said.
Nearly six months months had passed since Bethany’s informal heart-attack response team was pressed into action in Meyer Hall, and the Hall of Fame basketball coach was ready to issue his post-game assessment.
“I don’t think they could have done any better,” he said.
The first team was nearly flawless in the opening minutes. And just as they were tiring, the firefighters rotated into the game. The communication was impeccable. There was a deep bench offering encouragement and spiritual support.
“Some of them were praying as they attended to me,” Heidenreich said. “I certainly believe in prayer.”
And there was the likely MVP.
“Having the retired fire chief in the room didn’t hurt,” he said with a laugh.
All in all, the teamwork, perseverance and composure were championship caliber. It’s an analysis repeated by the commentators at Mayo.
“If they hadn’t did what they did, the doctors in Rochester said I wouldn’t have made it to Rochester,” he said. “The emergency response made all the difference.”