Eleven St. Joseph responders are honored for a cardiac-arrest save

Eleven first responders in St. Joseph, Minnesota, were honored for bringing back a woman whose heart stopped three times. KNSI reported on October 20, 2026, that Police Chief Dwight Pfannenstein presented Life Saving Awards at the start of a city council meeting. The call was July 1. Crews were sent to a home after a report that a woman had fallen down the stairs and was unresponsive. Officers found her on the basement floor. She could not speak, but she squeezed their fingers when they asked her to.

Shortly after Mayo Ambulance arrived, she lost her pulse. Responders started CPR and used a LUCAS device for mechanical chest compressions, along with a defibrillator and medications. A pulse came back, then she went into cardiac arrest two more times. Continued care produced a pulse again. She was taken to St. Cloud Hospital.

The woman, Charland Campina, was in the audience with her family. Pfannenstein said that in talking with her since the emergency, she is recovering just fine. She did not speak at the microphone. She thanked her family and the people who saved her life, and said she knows she would not be here without them.

KNSI named the people honored. From the police department: Deputy Chief Matt Johnson and Officers Travis Manderscheid and Reece Riegel. From St. Joseph Fire and Rescue: Chief Jeff Taufen, Assistant Chief David Salzer, and Captain Ken Jacobson. From Mayo Ambulance: paramedics Khadra Omer, Elizabeth Bursch, and Andrew Woodford, and EMTs Lucas Fisher and Catera Davis. The story is the award night and her recovery. It does not add a new medical update beyond what the chief reported.