‘I would have helped anyone’: Saskatchewan nurse recalls saving Lanny McDonald’s life in February

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The Calgary Police Service recently honoured three civilians and one of their own who helped save Lanny McDonald’s life after he experienced a cardiac event at the Calgary International Airport in February.

On Feb. 4, Rajdeep Cheema noticed McDonald experiencing a medical emergency, Calgary police said in a statement. Cheema performed CPR.

Two off-duty nurses, Sheri Warkentin and Denise Geck, were coming off an incoming flight when they noticed the medical event, police say, and took over performing CPR, allowing Cheema to locate a defibrillator.

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Calgary police Const. Jose Cives assisted the life-saving efforts. Police say the four people spent approximately 15 minutes alternating between CPR and using the defibrillator before McDonald was stabilized and taken to hospital.

Warkentin and Geck are both nurses in Saskatchewan but didn’t know each other before the incident. Warkentin said they didn’t speak immediately after due to the “chaos,” though the nurses were able to connect several months later through McDonald.

When recalling the incident, Warkentin said she was with her husband when they came around a corner in the airport and “things just looked weird.” They kept walking before noticing a man on the ground who appeared to be receiving CPR.

She remembers handing her bag to her husband and rushing to help. “My brain was going so fast,” she said when recalling the events of the day.

Warkentin didn’t know who the man she helped was until a police officer approached her later in the airport and told her it was McDonald.

“I would have helped anyone,” she said.

Warkentin and the officer exchanged information, and he later nominated her, along with the two other civilians, for the Award of Exceptional Recognition for Life Saving at the Calgary Police Service Chief’s Awards Gala, which took place last Friday.

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Cives spoke about the incident in a video posted to X (formerly Twitter) by the Calgary Flames, saying he got a call about an adult male who had collapsed. He attended the scene and took over a male doing chest compressions, he said.

“There were many times when I thought that Lanny wasn’t gonna make it through, but I wasn’t gonna stop until I got some sort of a result,” recalled Cives.

“He is a local hero,” McDonald said of Cives in the same video.

The Flames legend made an effort to reach out to his rescuers once he was in good health and able to find their contact information. McDonald and Warkentin were able to speak on the phone ahead of the awards ceremony.

“He is an amazing man,” said Warkentin.

McDonald, who attended the awards ceremony with his wife, Ardell, said in a statement to Postmedia through Calgary Flames spokesman Peter Hanlon that it was an honour to attend the event, and that he watched with pride as “my life savers Jose, Denise, Sheri and Rajdeep receive their awards.

“As the recipient of not only their excellent training, but of their selflessness and care, I cannot explain my gratitude for their brave actions.”

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He continued, saying he and his wife were “humbled to sit in a room full of heroes, surrounded by first responders and citizens alike who have made a difference in so many lives.”

Warkentin echoed those sentiments about being at the gala, saying “it’s very humbling to be in a room of that many people getting such amazing awards for their bravery and their leadership.”

McDonald said he has four new lifelong friends, referring to Cheema, Warkentin, Geck and Cives, and that he is proud to know them.

The Calgary Flames called Cives the “epitome of a hero,” in a post to X earlier this year.

The hockey team acknowledged Cives’ part in saving McDonald’s life, sharing that McDonald, alongside several other former Flames, surprised Cives at a police fundraiser earlier this year, bringing the Stanley Cup with them.

“I owe my life right there to Jose,” McDonald said in a video of the surprise.

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