Dorchester Times: DHS Grad Owes His Life To Guardian Angel Tony Hernandez

Thursday, January 19, 2017

DHS Grad Owes His Life To Guardian Angel Tony Hernandez

You never know who's assisting your guardian angel.

For one Dorchester native and DHS graduate, the helper was Tony Hernandez, who was recently honored with the Life Saving Award.

The story begins on a sunny, humid Saturday afternoon this past September when a couple was shopping at the Gateway Mall. When the wife noticed her 58-year-old husband had fallen, she scurried to check on him, only to find he was not breathing.

Panic set in. She yelled for help. Fortunately, Tony Hernandez was close by.

Hernandez began to administer CPR to the fallen man. He continued to do so for approximately five minutes until the arrival of emergency medical personnel from Lincoln Fire and Rescue.

Hernandez reported that several times during that time, the man would begin breathing on his own, then lapse again into cardiac arrest.

Ultimately, emergency medical personnel were able to regain a pulse on the victim. By the time he was transported to the Nebraska Heart Hospital, he was breathing on his own and speaking with his wife.

The man who suffered the heart attack and flirted with death was Kevin Znamenacek, a 1976 graduate of Dorchester High. He is the son of Lester and Joann Znamenacek, who owned and operated Znamenacek Implement Co. for many years from the 1960s to 1970s, selling and servicing Massey Ferguson, Hesston and other brands of farming machinery.

Sadly, Kevin's younger brother Gary, a 1978 DHS graduate, passed away just two years earlier at the age of 54. Gary's passing occurred during the same week as Kevin's heart attack.

As for Tony Hernandez, he's no stranger to helping others. He was an officer with the Lincoln Police Department for 22 years. Although retired, his selfless spirit and drive to help others has obviously not diminished.

If not been for Hernandez's immediate response in this situation and his willingness to step in, the end result would have likely been tragically different.

Thank God for guardian angels -- and their helpers.

4 comments:

AnonymousJanuary 19, 2017 at 7:21 AM
Awesome story! Cheers to Tony for his heroic act! Well wishes to Kevin!
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AnonymousJanuary 19, 2017 at 9:18 AM
I knew Kevin had a heart attack but didn't know the circumstances leading up to it. Thank goodness someone knew CPR and was able to help before LFR arrived. Everyone should know basic CPR....it's simple and anyone can do it. So glad that Kevin is doing ok and here with us thanks to a stranger.
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AnonymousJanuary 19, 2017 at 12:48 PM
Great story! Happy ending!
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Fulton St. GalJanuary 19, 2017 at 9:36 PM
Am I the only one whose eyes were welling up after reading this?
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Dorchester: A Good Little Family Town

Dorchester, Nebraska (est. population 630) is located in northern Saline county. Close in proximity to Interstate 80, Dorchester is only 25 minutes from the state capital of Lincoln (est. population 250,000) and about 55 minutes from Omaha (metro population 725,000).

Dorchester's median resident age is 37 years. In 2005, Dorchester had a median family income of approximately $35,600. The median house value was about $63,000. About 95 percent of Dorchester residents commute to work via Interstate and highways.

The village has a quality public school, which received a $4.1 million expansion and modernization in 2008; it offers a small classrooms and individualized attention. Total enrollment of grades K-12 is around 230-250 students.

Ancestries of the Dorchester area are primarily German (42.4%), Czech (24.9%), Irish (12.5%), English (5.4%), and Dutch (4.9%).

Dorchester Historical Facts

* On July 4, 1871, the railroad reached Dorchester.
* Incorporated in 1881, Dorchester's population grew from 200 to 500 by 1882.
* In 1882, Dorchester had 90 buildings, 35 of which were businesses or public facilities. Brick buildings lined both sides of Washington Avenue for two blocks.
* Dorchester's longest-running newspaper was The Dorchester Star, which was published until the late 1940s.
* By 1889, Dorchester's population is said to have reached 800, while the town housed an opera house, a two-story brick schoolhouse with a bell tower, and four churches.
* By the 1910s, Dorchester had electricity, a water tower and a fire department.
* Dorchester's main arteries, Highways 6 and 33, were graveled in the 1940s.
* Dorchester's first irrigation well was drilled on Chris Weber's farm and rural electrification was finished following WWII.

A Village with History

Dorchester is one of the "alphabet towns" on the Burlington & Missouri River Railroad line built west from Lincoln. The town site was selected for its pleasant location in the northern part of Saline County, about eight miles west of Crete. This situation is an attractive one, being on the level prairie land, midway between the West Blue River and Turkey Creek. The first named stream is three miles north, and the latter about the same distance south from the town. Dorchester was platted in 1870 and incorporated in 1881. The name "Dorchester" came from either for a suburb of Boston by that name or a town in England. No one is sure. Two of the very first settlers were James Seely and Edward McIntyre, who both made Dorchester their permanent home.

Dorchester: In The Beginning

Here is a look at Dorchester around 1890, less than a decade after its official incorporation, as documented by Andreas' History of the State of Nebraska:
* POPULATION: "About 300, and is made up of a substantial and progressive class of citizens, who are moral and industrious. ... The town grew but very little until the year 1879, for the reason that Pleasant Hill, on Turkey Creek, a short distance south, was the county seat and naturally drew a trade for quite a large scope of country."
* BUSINESS: "The business and professional interests of the town are represented by three general merchandise stores, two drug, one grocery, one furniture, two hardware, and two millinery stores, one bank, two restaurants, two hotels, three livery stables, a post office, one newspaper office, two elevators, two lumber yards, two coal yards, two blacksmith shops, two lawyers and four physicians."
* SCHOOL: "The schoolhouse is a good one. The schoolhouse was built in 1872, since which time the public schools have been continually kept up. The present schoolhouse is 24' x 40' in size, two stories high. The school is graded and consists of three departments. The house is found too small, and arrangements will soon be made to increase its size."
* CHURCHES: "There are three substantial churches."
* HOMES: "The residence portion of the village is made up of neat houses of different styles of architecture, but none of them very large."
* NEWSPAPER: "The Dorchester Star, which was established August 21, 1881, by H. C. Bittenbender, who edited it until January 19, 1882, when he sold it to Ryerson & Bullock, the present proprietors. The Star is a bright weekly paper, five-column quarto, in size, and is Republican in politics."