First responders, wife honored for role in deacon’s amazing recovery

The Sartell city council honored three police officers and three paramedics with the Life Saver Award at its Sept. 9 meeting for their role in saving the life of Deacon Steve Pareja. Deacon Pareja suffered what his doctors called “a sudden death event,” during the night of March 28, 2024, Holy Thursday.

It is because of these first responders and the quick actions of his wife, Donna, who was also honored with the Life Saver Award, that Deacon Pareja is still here to tell his story.

“I’m here today because of these people … I am so forever grateful,” he said during the award presentation. “I’m grateful to live in a community that has first responders who can respond so quickly, are trained so well and have the equipment that they need to save a life like mine.”

Deacon Pareja, who serves at St. Francis Xavier Parish in Sartell, lost consciousness after getting up during the night not feeling well. Donna heard him fall and rushed to him. Realizing he wasn’t breathing, she grabbed her phone, dialed 9-1-1, set the phone on speaker and started CPR.

Donna recently retired after 23 years working in the cardiac catheterization lab at St. Cloud Hospital. She is trained as an X-ray technician, but had fulfilled many roles over her years there. So, when she heard her husband fall, she went into “work mode” and knew what to do.

After the 9-1-1 call, Officers Logan Eck and Derek Whitehead arrived first. They took over doing CPR and brought in an automated external defibrillator. Officer Emma Brown arrived shortly after that, and advised two separate times to give a shock with the AED.

“Officers delivered that shock to Steve, and were able to get a pulse back, which is pretty amazing for anybody who’s responded to these events,” said Sartell Police Chief Brandon Silgjord, during the award presentation. “This is really uncommon. For the most part, we try our best, but we don’t always succeed. In fact, more often than not, we don’t.”

Officer Brown had only been an officer for about a month when she responded to Donna’s 9-1-1 call. It was the first big medical emergency she had been involved with on the job.

“A lot of different things go through your mind,” she said. “I was just trying to remember what I needed to do, find something to do and be helpful somewhere.”

She was happy to find out that Deacon Pareja had recovered, she said. “The chances are kind of low when it comes to stuff like that, so it was a good feeling.”

After going through some ups and downs in the hospital, Deacon Pareja turned a corner and started getting better on Easter Sunday, he said.

He was unconscious for 11 days and woke up thinking he had been in a car accident.

“I collapsed and the next thing I know, I woke up 11 days later,” he said. “I don’t know how many times Donna had to tell me that I had suffered a heart attack, I didn’t believe her.”

Deacon Pareja was in the hospital until April 21, going through physical therapy, occupational therapy and speech therapy when he was recovered enough.

It has been a long road, but he sees little silver linings, he said.

“[In the hospital,] I couldn’t do anything for myself except pray,” he said. “And it was then that I realized that maybe God had said, Steve, you need to slow down and focus on your faith and just really pray. I’ve always thought that I’m a faithful prayerful person, but in the midst of the busyness of life, sometimes it gets diluted. And I think it’s really brought my prayer life and my relationship with God that much closer.”

The weekend before Mother’s Day, Deacon Pareja was still walking with a cane and very unstable, but he knew that so many parishioners had been praying and asking about his recovery. He asked Father Ron Weyrens, pastor at St. Francis Xavier, if he could address the congregations of both Saturday and Sunday Masses.

“I just wanted to be able to come forward and say, I am a living testament that prayer is powerful,” he said. “I told them, ‘I want you to know that when somebody says, will you pray for me? and you do, it makes a difference. Because I sure felt it. And I know Donna and the kids felt it as well.’”

Another blessing is that he has connected with many people with whom he had lost contact.

“I’ve reconnected with childhood friends that I hadn’t seen,” he said. “Some I have not physically seen in 20 years or more and we’re reconnected and we’re in communication with each other.”

Donna said that when her husband asked, “Why am I still here?” She said, “Well, God has a plan. I truly believe it. I don’t know what it is and we may never specifically know what it is. But you have a purpose yet.”

“I still don’t know,” Deacon Pareja said. “I’ve had a lot of people asking me, so have you figured out why God kept you here? I have no idea. I figure that if I can be some sort of sign or symbol of faith, that God is real, that God loves us, that’s great. That’s all it needs to be.”