EchoVibe

At an age when most people plan to retire, Craig Kinzer was taking a life-saving class, and his own life was the one saved.

The 66-year-old Davenport man returned on Valentine’s Day Tuesday, to the scene of the fateful event – the Davenport North Family YMCA – that occurred in the swimming pool, Jan. 28, 2022.

“What we’re really celebrating today is the human heart and how one human heart is still beating today, because of the heroic actions of four young people,” said Trish Burnett, executive director of the regional American Red Cross chapter.

With the Y pool in the background, the Red Cross gave out Extraordinary Personal Action certificates to four lifeguards who helped save the life of Kinzer, who lost consciousness, while they were teaching a lifeguarding course.

“I kind of got a feeling that something was off, but I didn’t say anything,” Katie McGrane (one of the four honored) said of that day. “He seemed lethargic; I asked him if he was OK and he said, ‘I’m fine.’ He went on his swim and I noticed his swim stroke was a little different.”

At the time, she was aquatics director for the Bettendorf Family YMCA and she’s now recreation supervisor for aquatics for the city of Ankeny, Iowa. On Jan. 28, 2022 at the North Y, McGrane kept asking Kinzer if he was OK, and when he was in the shallow end, he started going down during a “brick test” and without hesitation, the lifeguards lifted him out of the water.

“Nathan did a great job, taking all of the leadership as I was telling him what to do,” she said of teen lifeguard Nathan Elbe. “He jumped in without hesitation and as a 16-year-old, there’s not much more you can ask of a staff member.”

No prior problems

Kinzer works out every day at the Bettendorf Y. In January 2022, he was taking the Red Cross life-saving class to get certified to become a junior high swim coach for the Davenport school district.

It was at 5 p.m. on a Friday and he had no shortness of breath or any unusual symptoms. Kinzer noticed that McGrane thought something might be wrong and called out to him.

When he did the brick test in the class, retrieving a 10-pound weight from the water, swimming with it and putting it on his chest, he lost consciousness and suffered what paramedics called “sudden cardiac death.”

“They revived me on the deck. I think they did a combined total of 30 minutes of CPR,” Kinzer recalled Tuesday, noting they also used a defibrillator on his chest, to shock his heart.

He was taken to Genesis East hospital, where stayed until Wednesday morning, after having four stents and a pacemaker implanted. Kinzer said he was told he had just 1 percent chance of getting out of the hospital within five days with no neurological damage.

“I go to the Y every day, even more now than before,” Kinzer said Tuesday, noting he hadn’t had any heart issues before. Both his parents smoked, and his mom had congestive heart failure and his dad had open heart surgery.

“I’ve been active in athletics my whole life, watched what I ate,” he said.

Kinzer said this was lucky it happened at the Y, adding he could have been home or driving. He said he never finished the training. “I didn’t pass, but I got reimbursed.”

Kinzer used to coach in Bettendorf – middle school boys and girls basketball, and high school track, a total of 24 years. He also coached Pleasant Valley track, baseball and soccer.

At Davenport Central, most recently, he coached girls golf and softball.

“Like a fever dream”

“Everybody had their jobs – it was a lot of moving parts, but everybody knew where they should be and what they should be doing,” McGrane said of that pool rescue. “Looking back on that, you can’t ask for any more than that. It’s one of those things you hope never happens, but you look at, it’s like something you see in the movies.”

“We just stayed confident in our abilities and EMS showed up and took over,” she said. “That evening was tough on all of us. We just wanted to know he was OK. Then the next morning, to hear he was OK brought me to tears. When his daughter thanked me the next day, that was very moving in the sense that, it really gives you purpose in your job.”

“I was so grateful the team pulled together and I was part of it,” McGrane said.

To be recognized by a national organization like Red Cross is also moving, since she’s been a lifeguard since she was 15 (for nine years).

“I do the job of lifeguard because I enjoy it. I don’t enjoy the idea of having to save somebody,” McGrane said. “Being here today and getting to see everybody, getting reacquainted with Coach Kinzer is amazing.”

“I appreciate all the recognition, but at the end of the day, getting to see him and talk to him is the greatest reward,” she added. This was first time McGrane actually helped save a life and said Tuesday it was ironic it happened during the lifeguard class.

“It was very much an out of-body experience,” she said. “It feels like a fever dream.”

Last September, Kinzer was able to walk his daughter Kyllie down the aisle at her wedding, and she is due to have her first child in June.

“I thank these guys, who were paying attention to the training they received,” he said to the lifeguards. “They knew exactly what to do. The paramedics said if they didn’t do what they did, they wouldn’t have a viable body to work with. I am very grateful. I thank the Lord every day and I think about these guys.”

Kinzer personally distributed the certificates to three of the four lifeguards present Tuesday (McGrane, Elbe, and R.L. Aldridge; Alex Vogel was not there) at the Y, 624 W. 53rd St., Davenport.

Kinzer’s cardiologist has said his heart is “back to 100 percent,” he said, noting he’s on seven medications.

He also nominated the Y’s lifeguards for Davenport Mayor’s awards, given out last summer. Kinzer would like to see the Iowa governor honor them as well.

Get CPR training

“I would absolutely recommend that anybody and everybody get CPR trained or certified, because it happens,” McGrane said.

“We’re so blessed and we train and train for this,” said Luis Leal, the executive director of the Bettendorf Family Y. “Unfortunately, it’s not if, it’s when something’s gonna happen. We’re just fortunate that Katie and her team stepped up and did everything correctly, the way we train.”

For people who don’t have CPR training, Leal emphasized that if you see a health emergency, call 911 right away.

For more information on Red Cross training, click HERE.

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