Before joining the Metro Police Department, Detective Donnie Schraut served our community as an EMT.
On Monday morning he used that training in a way he never had before that day.
Bill Clark has been a regular racquetball player at the Louisville Athletic Club in Jeffersontown, playing as often as three times a week.
On Monday morning, he was playing his friend, UPS pilot Tom Roggiero. "Last thing I remember I was on the court," Clark said. "The score was 11-2, my favor, for a change."
Suddenly, Clark collapsed. Roggiero ran out of the court asking someone to call 911.
Larry Buren was working out when Clark collapsed. "He was down. He was gone. He was blue," Buren said.
Fortunately for Clark, Schraut was also working out near the racquetball court. He said Clark had no pulse and wasn't breathing.
Schraut remembered the club had an automated external defibrillator. He had training on the device but had never used it in an emergency. "I grabbed it, took it back, hooked him up to it and hit the analyze button," he said. "It told me to shock him."
A short time later, Clark's heart started beating again. Roggiero also helped. "He actually gave him several mouth-to-mouth and he started breathing on his own and started getting his color back," Schraut said.
"He knew what he was doing and shocked him a couple of times, got him back to life basically, so Donnie's a true hero," Buren said.
"I'd like to take him out to eat, him and his family, if he has a family," Clark said.
"After it was over, I got cold chills. Thinking about it just made me feel really good, like maybe I could make a difference in somebody's life and hopefully prolong his life," Schraut said. "Give him a lot more chance to be around his family."
"I'm glad to be alive," said Clark. "I think I will think differently about other things I do, too."