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suddenly stopped speaking, his head falling to one side.
“ There was a little bit of a gurgle, and then nothing,” Teri recalled.
At first, she thought he might be choking. Then she reached for his wrist. There wasn’ t a pulse. She pulled Jim onto the floor and immediately began CPR while following instructions from the 911 dispatcher.
“ Our first blessing is that it was witnessed, and I was there,” she said.“ If it would have been 15 minutes earlier, I wouldn’ t have witnessed it.”
For more than 20 minutes, paramedics, deputies and police officers worked to revive Jim, delivering multiple shocks with an automated external defibrillator before finally restoring a heartbeat.
“ When they took him away, both of his ears were as blue as blueberries,” Teri recalled.
At St. Cloud Hospital, doctors prepared the family for the worst. Jim was placed into a medically induced coma and his body was cooled for 36 hours in hopes of limiting brain damage. They warned his family that if he survived, he might never regain the cognitive abilities they knew.
“ I was able to tell our four adult children I did everything I could,” Teri said.“ I want others in that same type of situation to be able to say they did everything they could and have no regrets.”
Thirty-six hours later, despite all odds, Jim woke up.
He remembers little from those first days. A nurse leaned over his bed and asked if he knew his name. When he answered correctly, she rushed to find the doctor.
“ It was a celebration,” Jim recalled.“ Something to thank God for.”
Recovery, however, wasn’ t immediate. A perforated trachea required a feeding tube for several weeks, and much of what happened during those first days remains a blank in
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“ Give back. We’ re not here for ourselves. We’ re here for other people. We’ re here to serve and here for each other.”
— Jim Johnson, Citizen of the Year and co-founder of Heart Strong Monticello
Jim’ s memory. One memory he does remember is his cardiologist’ s reaction.
“ Every time he came into my room,” Jim said,“ he would say,‘ You shouldn’ t be here.’”
Looking back, Jim says one of the hardest parts is realizing what his wife and their children endured while he remembers so little.
“ I didn’ t have to tell our kids,” he said quietly.“ I didn’ t have to go through that. She did.”
Sitting across from one another at a picnic table in one of their favorite parks, the Johnsons instinctively reached across and held hands as they recalled those moments, fighting back tears. Nearly four years later, despite sharing the story dozens of times through Heart Strong presentations, some memories never become routine.
In the months that followed, one question kept returning to Jim: Why?
According to CentraCare’ s CARES Survival Report, only five of the 35 Monticello residents who suffered sudden cardiac arrest in 2022 survived. The following year, just three of 34 survived.
Those figures mirror a national public health crisis. The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Foundation estimates about 356,000 people experience EMS-assessed out-of-hospital sudden cardiac arrest each year in the U. S. Immediate bystander CPR can double or even triple a person’ s chance of survival.
According to the SCA Foundation, nine out of 10 do not survive.
“ Why am I the one?” he recalled asking himself.
Over time, he came to believe there was an answer.
“ I believe there’ s a purpose as to why I’ m still here,” he said.“ This is the purpose. What we are doing— that’ s our calling.”
“ Our outcome is not typical,” he continued.“ We now have knowledge and experience that we can use to help make this a better place.”
Turning purpose into action
The Johnsons never intended to start a nonprofit. They simply wanted to share their story and encourage others to learn hands-only CPR. But wherever they spoke, they discovered how few people understood sudden cardiac arrest— or how critical those first few minutes can be before emergency responders arrive.
“ If we can equip people to do hands-only CPR and teach them how to use an AED until an EMT arrives, then we can increase that number,” Jim said.“ We have to do things as bystanders until medical responders get there.”
Heart Strong officially became a nonprofit in May 2024 with a mission to raise awareness about sudden cardiac arrest, provide free CPR and AED training and expand access to lifesaving equipment.
Since then, the organization has trained approximately 2,500 people, helped register more than 40 AEDs on the PulsePoint app and partnered with schools, churches, businesses and local governments to make lifesaving equipment more accessible.
Earlier this year, those efforts helped Monticello earn Heart
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Safe Community designation from the Minnesota Department of Health.
“ We want to make this a better, safer place for people to live, work and play,” Jim said.
One of those publicly accessible AEDs now hangs on the log shelter at Ellison Park, just steps from the picnic table where the Johnsons recently shared their story.
Today, the Johnsons travel throughout Minnesota sharing their experience and teaching others how to respond when every second counts.
But they insist Heart Strong has never been about the two of them.
“ You can’ t do anything well all by yourself,” Jim said.“ It is about the people you choose to bring around you.”
Teri compares it to tossing a pebble into a pond.
“ You’ re tossing the pebble in with our presentation, and then it’ s rippling out,” she said.
That ripple often returns in unexpected ways.
After presentations, people frequently approach them to share stories they have carried for years— a spouse who died unexpectedly, a child whose life was saved or lingering questions about whether they could have done more.
“ We had a positive outcome, but you might be out there and have had a different outcome,” Teri said.“ People come with a heavy emotional burden on their hearts.”
Then, nearly three years after Jim’ s first cardiac arrest, their message became personal once again.
Jim was speaking to about 60 members of the Monticello Lions Club about sudden cardiac arrest when he suddenly stopped mid-sentence.
“ I feel a little weird,” he recalled saying. Then he collapsed. For a split second, Teri feared they were reliving the nightmare of October 2022.
Instead, the implanted defibrillator doctors had placed in
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Jim’ s chest detected the abnormal heart rhythm and delivered a lifesaving shock within seconds.
Jim regained consciousness almost immediately.“ What happened?” he asked. For the Johnsons, it was another reminder that preparation saves lives.
Today, Jim says his neardeath experience has forever changed his perspective.
“ Life is truly, truly a gift,” he said.“ You need to live in the moment because you never know when the next moment might not be there for you.
“ It’ s appreciating everything that you have, the people in your life, the circumstances that you have. The people who are in our lives are gifts, and you need to make sure they know that.”
For the Johnsons, Heart Strong has never really been about CPR classes or AEDs. It’ s about giving families another tomorrow.
“ Families can continue to have birthday parties and Christmases and enjoy those celebrations,” Jim said.“ That’ s what we want to create.”
He believes that somewhere down the road, another father will walk his daughter down the aisle because someone nearby knew CPR. Another grandmother will hold her first grandchild because an AED was available when it mattered most.
Receiving Monticello’ s Citizen of the Year award wasn’ t something either of them expected.
“ It’ s a humble honor,” Jim said.“ When you look at those people whose names precede us on that list, to be put in that same group, it’ s humbling.”
Asked what it means to be a good citizen, Jim didn’ t hesitate.
“ I think being a good citizen is about making some place better than when you came,” he said.
After a brief pause, he returned to the philosophy that has quietly guided his marriage, his career and the mission he and Teri now share:“ Give back.”
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