“Everyone was right where they needed to be, right when they needed to be there.”
That’s how Autumn Whitely describes how she and other neighbors came to the rescue of Lee Hamann the evening of May 22.
Hamann, 61, suffered a heart attack while mowing his lawn on West Luverne Street.
Thanks to attentive, medically trained neighbors and a quick response from emergency personnel, Hamann was recently given a clean bill of health and is even mowing his lawn again.
“It all worked out the best it could,” Hamann said. “It could have ended much worse.”
Hamann said he “switched up” his usual mowing routine that night, ending in the front instead of the back.
“I guess I fell right on the boulevard,” he said. “If I had mowed the other way and fallen in the back, maybe no one would have seen me.”
Instead, Hamann had four neighbors come to his rescue.
“I came around the front of my house and saw him fall,” said Buck Underwood, who lives two doors down.
“I yelled for Sig and the guy helping me with my deck, Bryce Goembel, called 911. … If we weren’t working on the deck, I would have never seen him. We normally don’t use our front door.”
Buck’s wife, Sig, a retired registered nurse, joined her husband at Hamann’s side.
Jason and Jennie Aanenson live in the house between the Hamanns and Underwoods.
Their children were outside and also saw Hamann fall. They immediately yelled for their mom, also a registered nurse, to come help.
At the same time, Whitely, who is a licensed practical nurse, was sitting on her porch next door and heard the commotion and went to help.
“Normally this is a pretty quiet street, so we knew something was wrong,” she said.
The neighbors checked for a pulse (there was none) and began administering CPR until the emergency responders arrived.
“I guess the deputy was the first one here and he paddled me,” Hamann said.
“I think all the deputies have AEDs in their cars now, which I’m really thankful for,” Hamann said, referring to automated external defibrillators.
“Buck said ‘I think we lost him,” Sig Underwood said. “But that first shock from the deputy helped.”
Lee’s wife, Kathy, was at the library and was called by the neighbors as well. She arrived just as Lee was being placed in the ambulance.
“Everyone got here so quickly,” Sig Underwood said. “But of course it feels like forever at the time.”
Hamann said he remembers the ambulance ride. “I came to on the way to the ER in Luverne,” he said.
He was then transferred to the Sanford Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls and had two stints put in.
Hamann didn’t stay in the hospital for long, however.
“He had his heart attack on a Tuesday and I think by Thursday night he was on our porch to visit,” Buck Underwood said.
Hamann retired in 2015 from the Rock County Highway Department and had worked part time driving for Community Transit since then.
Although he is recovering well from his heart attack, Hamann said he is fully retired now.
“I can’t imagine what would have happened if I had been driving a load of little kids,” he said.
Lee and Kathy Hamann, who have lived in their home for 35 years, say they will be forever grateful to the neighbors and responders who came to Lee’s rescue.
“I don’t know how I’m going to repay them,” he said.
“They are not just neighbors, they’re good friends,” Kathy Hamann added. “It was a true miracle.”
Their neighbors agree.
“Everyone was just at the right place,” Sig Underwood said. “It was totally a God thing.”