Former Nebraska football star Demoine Adams is able to claim something few others. He got to meet the man that helped save his life just a few weeks ago.
The ex-Husker, his wife Fara Adams, and their four children met up with Lincoln Police Department dispatcher Joey Mims earlier this week in order to thank Mims for what he did and to talk about how close Demoine came to seeing his life end prematurely.
In meeting with Mims, the former Nebraska football star harkened back to what his old coach, Tom Osborne used to tell his players according to the Omaha World-Herald. "Teamwork makes the dream work." However, Adams knows that in the case of his wife and Mims, teamwork made life work.
Ex-Nebraska football player saved by quick thinking
The episode started around 2am on January 13. That's when Adams started talking about chest pains and lightheadedness. Eventually things got hazy, likely because he lost consciousness.
His wife Fara called 9-1-1 and got Mims on then phone. The Lincoln Police dispatcher then walked her through several different ways of doing CPR. A couple of different approaches were needed because when Adams eventually collapsed to the ground, he fell at an odd angle.
Mims said that one of the issues with walking people through CPR over the phone is that caller is having to remain calm and understand they are keeping another person alive.
In the case of the wife of the former Nebraska football player, it was the first time that Fara Adams had ever done anything like what she did that night. "The first time I did CPR was on my husband," she told the paper.
As Fara did chest compressions under the watchful ear of Mims, she was able to get Demoine conscious again. First responders arrived at the couple's home moments later and the ex-Nebraska football player's life was saved.
When the couple met Mims on Wednesday, they both expressed their appreciation for how he helped. It turns out that Demoine had a blood clot in his lungs that he's still getting treatment for now.
"I hear your voice sometimes at night," Fara Adams told Mims. It's the kind of story about a call to 9-1-1 that fortunately had a happy ending.