A Game Turned Lifesaving Moment
On a crisp evening at the Skatetown Ice Arena in Nevada County, a casual pickup game between acquaintances took a sudden turn when Ken Dorner collapsed without a pulse, his body going still for more than two minutes before anyone realized the emergency.
Ben Hertel, a Nevada County Probation Officer III who was playing that night, sprang into action, beginning chest compressions and applying an automated external defibrillator that had been stationed at the rink. His rapid response kept blood flowing until paramedics arrived, a window that likely prevented irreversible brain damage.
Training That Made the Difference
Hertel’s preparedness was not accidental. He had spent years training roughly a hundred community members in CPR and lifesaving techniques through the American Heart Association, and his prior experience included using a tourniquet to stop bleeding at a county fair. That background turned what could have been panic into a disciplined sequence of lifesaving steps.
Recognition and Community Response
A small ceremony later brought together Dorner, his family, and a handful of probation officers and their relatives to honor Hertel’s bravery. Supervising Deputy Probation Officer Robin Jones, who had learned of the incident through word of mouth, arranged the event and presented Hertel with a Certificate of Recognition and a “Heart Saver Hero Award.”
The episode serves as a reminder that basic emergency training can have life‑changing consequences, and it highlights the role of community support in turning a routine sport into a backdrop for heroism.