Good Samaritan recognized as hero for helping save man's life in Cottage Grove

COTTAGE GROVE, Minn. - Growing up, Lauren Rowe always knew she wanted to help people. At 22 years old, she's already off to a good start.

"Emotionally, its kind of all over the place. Kind of exciting that my training kicked in when it did. Emotional and sad the fact that what happened, happened," said Rowe.

Rowe was buying some energy drinks at the Holiday Station Store on Hadley Avenue in Cottage Grove in March of last year, when another customer had a heart attack ane collapsed right next to her.

Rowe performed CPR on the 64-year-old until a sheriff's deputy arrived and started to use a portable defibrillator on him.

But Rowe recognized the electrode pads were in the wrong place and corrected them, before the deputy shocked the man twice and paramedics arrived to take him to the hospital.

"I was just focused on doing the compressions properly and people were standing away when the shocks were happening or anything like that," said Rowe.

Rowe is a former explorer with the Cottage Grove Police Department and just graduated from Rasmussen University with a degree in law enforcement.

She says she was trained on how to use an AED as part of her education to become a police officer, but paramedics say her quick thinking helped save the customer's life.

"She set that patient up to have an outcome that allowed him to walk out of the hospital," said Capt. James Olson of the Cottage Grove Fire Department.

For her actions that night, Rowe received a life-saving award before Wednesday night's city council meeting.

But she is just grateful she was in the right place at the right time and was able to put her training to good use.

"Definitely something to put in the memories and something to put in the books, because not everybody gets to do what I did and has the opportunity to do what I did," said Rowe.