Small town gas station heroes: CPR and quick-thinking bystanders credited with saving Hettinger man’s life

LEMMON, S.D. (KFYR) – Talk about a case of the right people being in the right place at the right time.

The people: Wally Dauwen and his nephew, Mason Dauwen.

The place: the Pit Stop, a gas station in Lemmon, South Dakota.

The time: a random Friday afternoon.

All those factors came together to save a man’s life.

Mason Dauwen never leaves home without his pocket cross.

“A little comfort in my pocket knowing that God’s on our side,” he said.

He’s made crosses for a couple other people too: one for Ron Dragoo and another for his uncle Wally Dauwen.

“I don’t leave home without it,” said Wally.

The three men are forever bonded by those crosses, and by a moment that happened in a gas station booth.

“I was sitting here on my lunch break,” recalled Wally. “Ron went into the office. Then he sat down and started talking to me. Then he just went limp. He died.”

Ron suffered a cardiac arrest.

“My heart just stopped. Luckily, I was sitting in that booth with Wally across from me, “said Ron.

Lucky, because Wally knew exactly what to do.

“It just kicked in. It wasn’t even a second thought,” said Wally.

Wally had a coworker dial 911 and then started CPR.

“I’ve done CPR a couple times when I was on the ambulance squad,” Wally remembered. “This is the first time it’s worked.”

Mason is a volunteer firefighter and got the 911 page.

“Wally said he was getting tired so I took over for him,” Mason recalled.

The two did more than 800 compressions on Ron.

“That was actually the first time I’ve ever performed CPR on someone,” admitted Mason.

The ambulance took Ron to Hettinger, then flew him to Bismarck. He now has a pacemaker and a defibrillator in his shoulder.

He also has a cross in his pocket, and a new appreciation for life.

“I’m kind of looking to see what my purpose is,” he said. “God will let me know. There’s a reason.”

Ron is convinced it’s a miracle he’s alive.

“Patients who have cardiac arrest in the hospital, 22% survive. Of that 22% that survived, only 10% survived without brain injury. And that’s in hospital. I was in a gas station in Lemmon, South Dakota with my angels,” Ron said.

Proof that angels are everywhere, even in a small-town gas station.

In the weeks since Ron’s cardiac arrest, he and Mason have discovered they have quite a bit in common, including the same birthday. They’re making plans to celebrate together next September 4.

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