We don’t always know who they are, but there are heroes around us, and Park City has a very special one.
My daughter and her family are part-time residents of Park City. The family enjoys getting out of the heat of Las Vegas during the summer and the endless opportunities for outdoor sports keep everyone engaged.
Wintertime is ski time and most of the family looks forward to their time on the slopes.
That’s where they were the morning of Dec. 18, during winter break. Since my daughter is ambivalent about skiing, an obvious result of genetics, she decided to skip the mountain for the first day of skiing.
She dropped off her husband and three kids near the lifts and headed home. In one of those unexplained quirks of fate, instead of going straight home, she decided to run a quick errand. She didn’t realize she had just made a life-or-death decision.
Errand-bound, she reached Kimball Junction, the intersection of West Ute Boulevard and 224, turned on her signal, and pulled into the left lane.
Across the intersection, turning left in the opposite direction was Park City resident Alice Speak. Waiting for the light to turn green, Alice casually glanced at my daughter through the windshield at the exact moment she witnessed her slump over.
Without any hesitation, Alice got her car out of the way and ran across the intersection to find my daughter unconscious and with no pulse.
Fate was still on my daughter’s side. Alice Speak, the only person to witness my daughter going into cardiac arrest, is a trauma nurse who works in the emergency department of Park City Hospital.
Alice went to work without needing to wait for someone to tell her what to do. She decided against moving her patient out of the car and onto the cold ground, and reclined the driver’s seat as she began administering CPR. She called out to the small crowd that had gathered for someone to call 911 and she continued to pump my daughter’s chest.
She realized with each pump she was hitting the car’s horn, sending out a constant beep-beep, but before long she felt some relief as she was getting a faint pulse.
In a short time, the paramedics arrived to take over the job of keeping my daughter alive, but as Alice stopped her CPR, so did my daughter’s pulse. She informed the paramedics and they quickly moved my daughter into the ambulance where they needed to shock her three times to get a consistent heartbeat.
My daughter turned out to be very lucky that day. One of her doctors at the University of Utah Medical Center suggested she buy a lottery ticket. Of course, she’ll need to wait for Utah to have a lottery first.
After a week in the hospital, she headed home with no one knowing why this happened, but grateful that Alice Speak was in the intersection that morning.
In a very emotional moment, Alice and my daughter met at the Medical Center before she was released. When asked what we could do to show our appreciation, Alice unselfishly suggested contributing to the Fourth Street Clinic, 401W 400S in Salt Lake City.
That is exactly what a hero would do.
Alice Speak, who along with her colleagues finds ways to be heroic daily, will always have a special place in our family’s hearts. She is a citizen that Park City and Utah can be proud of.
Gene Greenberg
Las Vegas, Nevada