MUSKEGON, MI – It was a typical hot summer evening at The Deck on Muskegon’s beach, with crowds lined up waiting to get tables and servers hustling about on the restaurant’s multiple decks.
Jenny Hart Locke was managing the kitchen, helping out her good friend who is a part-owner of the immensely popular beach spot. After working 20 years as a registered nurse followed by her current job as a real estate agent, Hart Locke didn’t really need the job.
But she’s one of those who jumps in to help when she can.
It was approaching 7:30 p.m. on July 19 when a server burst into the kitchen. A diner had passed out and The Deck’s employees knew to seek out Hart Locke for any medical emergencies because of her nursing experience.
Typically, she’s called to help someone suffering from low blood sugar, or a patron who’s had too much sun and not enough hydration.
Hart Locke raced onto the restaurant’s main deck, the one off of which pontoon boats are attached for a unique dining experience. There, she saw a woman at a picnic table who was unconscious, slumped against a friend among a group she was dining with.
“I tried to get her to wake up, pulled her arm, touched her in the face,” Hart Locke told MLive/Muskegon Chronicle. “(Her friends) were constantly calling her name.”
That’s when Hart Locke checked the woman for a pulse and respiration and found none. She looked at the woman’s pupils and saw they were dilated. Her heart had stopped – she wasn’t breathing.
Tables were pushed back, startled diners hustled out of the way and the woman was lowered to the floor.
“I think I was just in my zone,” Hart Locke said. “It was just like move the tables, get her to the ground and let’s go.”
Adrenaline kicked in as Hart Locke began CPR. She said it only took about eight to 10 chest compressions to kick-start the woman’s heart. The patient took in a huge breath and opened her eyes.
Emergency responders had already been called, but getting their trucks through the crowded beach traffic was a challenge and it seemed like it was taking them “forever,” to get there, Hart Locke said.
“It felt like a long time, but it wasn’t,” she said.
The patient was made comfortable with cool wet towels and Hart Locke said she kept talking to the woman who appeared to be in shock.
But once EMS arrived, Hart Locke was out of there. The restaurant was “packed,” the scene “chaotic” and she was shaken up and needed to collect herself.
“I’m going to be honest. I didn’t stick around long. I thought, ‘I’m going back to my job, back to the kitchen,’” she said. “(EMS) was there and they didn’t need me.”
And that could have been the end of the story. Another do-gooder had saved a life and then disappeared to carry on with their own.
Muskegon Deputy Public Safety Director Jay Paulson, who oversees the fire department, knows that’s not uncommon. Everyday heroes walk among us. They put themselves out there – maybe pull someone from a burning car or perform CPR down at the beach – and never seek nor receive recognition.
Paulson said Muskegon’s new Public Safety Director Tim Kozal wants to change that. He wants to make sure they are held up as examples of good citizenship.
The trouble is, it’s not always easy to track down those humble heroes.
For example, the fire department knew a woman named Jenny had helped at the medical emergency at The Deck, but knew nothing more about her, nor the extent of her actions, Paulson said.
Several days after the incident, he ran into former Muskegon County Board Chair Bob Scolnik, a well-known community supporter and philanthropist, at the dry cleaners. Scolnik mentioned his best friend, Jenny Hart Locke, had saved a woman by performing CPR at The Deck.
Paulson called The Deck to talk to her and told Hart Locke he wanted to present her with a life-saving award at the next Muskegon City Commission meeting. Hart Locke was hesitant, Paulson said, but she agreed when he told her it would be good for the community and The Deck for her to get recognized.
And so, on Aug. 22, Paulson called Hart Locke forward at the Muskegon City Commission meeting and presented her with the fire department’s first “Citizen Life-Saving Award,” given for “exceptional lifesaving effort rendered to a citizen in distress.”
“Your act of heroism was a critical link in the patient’s chain of survival,” Paulson told her. “Your dedication to the preservation of life is to be commended.”
Paulson doesn’t know much about the patient who was saved, other than she’s 61 years old and had some sort of a “heart event.” Health information privacy laws prevent even fire departments from receiving patient information unless they want to go through the process of filing a subpoena, he said.
Paulson believes the woman is not from Muskegon and may have been visiting friends in town.
He’s now helping the owners of The Deck, Michelle Harris and Fred Scharmer, determine the best AED – automated external defibrillator – for them to buy for the restaurant and where it should be kept for easy access.
Hart Locke uses the words “humbled,” “appreciative” and “honored” to describe her reaction to her life-saving award. But recognition is not something she goes out seeking. When you’re a nurse, helping out at medical emergencies is just “who you are,” she said.
“I would do it again,” she said, encouraging others to have the courage to step in to help others in crisis.
“I don’t think there’s anything that would make me not get involved to help someone in need.”