{"id":55576,"date":"2025-04-28T15:22:50","date_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:22:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/?p=55576"},"modified":"2025-04-28T15:23:23","modified_gmt":"2025-04-28T19:23:23","slug":"two-students-receive-sheriffs-commendation-for-saving-lakeland-mans-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/2025\/04\/28\/two-students-receive-sheriffs-commendation-for-saving-lakeland-mans-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Two Students receive Sheriff\u2019s Commendation for saving Lakeland man\u2019s life"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

By Caroline Bryant Editor-in-Chief \u00a0THE SOUTHERN<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n

\n
\"\"
Brian von Suskil and Alex McManus holding their awards next to Grady Judd, with the man they saved, Terry Dennis. | Photo courtesy of Brian von Suskil<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

On April 8, 2024, junior Alex McManus and sophomore Brian von Suskil planned on driving to Starbucks early in the morning to grab breakfast while they applied for classes. Thinking the coffee house would be crowded, they decided to go to McDonalds instead.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This change would alter 71-year-old Terry Dennis\u2019 life forever.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cTwo older guys that came in, which ended up being Terry and then his friend Fred,\u201d McManus said. \u201cThey had sat behind us and I didn\u2019t think anything of it. And then I just, like, my back faced them and I heard something smack the ground. I turned around and then Terry had fallen out like, coffee everywhere, he just fell out of his chair. He was lying on the ground.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With direction from Fred, McManus called 911, relaying Dennis\u2019s condition to the emergency dispatcher. Von Suskil, returning from the restroom, saw Dennis on the ground. McManus pointed to Dennis, gesturing for von Suskil\u2019s help. Von Suskil took Dennis\u2019 pulse and checked if he was breathing or responsive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was asking if he was responsive,\u201d von Suskil said. \u201cI was like \u2026 \u2018Hey, are you here? What\u2019s up?\u2019 and he wasn\u2019t any of those. So I looked at Alex and I was like, \u2018CPR.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The two knew what to do being CPR and First Aid certified. Von Suskil completed respirations as McManus detailed a \u201cplay-by-play\u201d of Dennis\u2019 status. After about a minute, Dennis \u201cshot up\u201d and started agonal breathing, an irregular breathing response that can occur during medical episodes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The 911 operator urged von Suskil to continue compressions. Emergency responders arrived at the scene around five minutes later, swapping out von Suskil to finish CPR and clear the scene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the event was not what they had expected, they were glad they were there to help.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI mean \u2026 luckily Brian and I, we both have the knowledge and the skills to offer them in that situation,\u201d McManus said. \u201cAnd like, in what world, would we not [help] if we have the knowledge to. Even if the outcome wasn\u2019t what it ended up being like, we still would have given him a shot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

They\u2019d then return to their lives until two months later. In his hometown of Sarasota for the summer, von Suskil would receive a phone call from an unknown number. When he answered, the caller identified herself as Brenda, Dennis\u2019 wife. Crying, she told von Suskil that she found his number from the incident report they filed, thanking him and McManus for helping Dennis and notifying them that he lived.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

McManus and von Suskil have been in contact with the Dennis family ever since. T. Dennis even took them out to dinner to show appreciation for that day.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nearing the first anniversary of the event, von Suskil would receive another call, this time from Sergeant Robert McManus. R. McManus shared that he heard from Dennis about his and A. McManus\u2019 heroic actions, and wanted to honor them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

On April 7, 2025, they\u2019d attend a ceremony alongside police officers, EMTs and other civilians recognized for going above and beyond. Polk County Sheriff Grady Judd awarded them the Sheriff\u2019s Commendation and Commendation coin. Von Suskil\u2019s coin has an engraved number 6,160, A. McManus 6,161, on their coins. These numbers commemorate that there were the 6,160th and 6,161th person to receive the coin from the Polk County Sheriff\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

While they are thankful for the honor, it\u2019s nothing they expected or believed they deserved. A. McManus and von Suskil agreed that Brenda\u2019s calls and their dinner treat was more than enough.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIf anyone else was there, say like two other random kids were there, who even had the idea of CPR on their head, they probably would have done the same thing,\u201d von Suksil said. \u201cNurses, doctors, they do it every day. And so I\u2019m just kind of like, it\u2019s nothing special. For me, I never really felt like, \u2018Oh, yeah, I\u2019m cool.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And most of all, they were happy to save Dennis\u2019 life just in time to select their classes.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

By Caroline Bryant Editor-in-Chief \u00a0THE SOUTHERN On April 8, 2024, junior Alex McManus and sophomore Brian von Suskil planned on driving to Starbucks early in the morning to grab breakfast… <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":55577,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_seopress_titles_title":"","_seopress_titles_desc":"","_seopress_robots_index":"","_seopress_robots_follow":"","_seopress_robots_imageindex":"","_seopress_robots_snippet":"","_seopress_robots_primary_cat":"34","_seopress_robots_breadcrumbs":"","_seopress_robots_freeze_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_custom_modified_date":"","_seopress_robots_canonical":"","_seopress_social_fb_title":"","_seopress_social_fb_desc":"","_seopress_social_fb_img":"","_seopress_social_fb_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_fb_img_height":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_title":"","_seopress_social_twitter_desc":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img":"","_seopress_social_twitter_img_attachment_id":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_width":0,"_seopress_social_twitter_img_height":0,"_seopress_redirections_value":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled":"","_seopress_redirections_enabled_regex":"","_seopress_redirections_logged_status":"","_seopress_redirections_param":"","_seopress_redirections_type":0,"_seopress_analysis_target_kw":"","inline_featured_image":false,"_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"wpai_generated_summary":"","footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":true,"token":"eyJpbWciOiJodHRwczpcL1wvaTAud3AuY29tXC9sYWtlbGFuZGdhemV0dGUuaW5mb1wvbmV3c1wvd3AtY29udGVudFwvdXBsb2Fkc1wvMjAyNVwvMDRcL0lNR180OTI1LTEwMjR4NjgzLTEud2VicD9maXQ9MTAyNCUyQzY4MyZzc2w9MSIsInR4dCI6IlR3byBTdHVkZW50cyByZWNlaXZlIFNoZXJpZmZcdTIwMTlzIENvbW1lbmRhdGlvbiBmb3Igc2F2aW5nIExha2VsYW5kIG1hblx1MjAxOXMgbGlmZSIsInRlbXBsYXRlIjoiaGlnaHdheSIsImJsb2dfaWQiOjE2MzA0MDY2MX0.7FlJv0mjlwfLWKDeMjUT7w2vFElj-SUXFWlwPXoW79YMQ"},"version":2,"attached_media":[{"id":55577,"url":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/04\/IMG_4925-1024x683-1.webp","type":"image\/jpeg"}]},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false},"categories":[34],"tags":[11454],"class_list":["post-55576","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-fsc-news","tag-two-students-receive-sheriffs-commendation-for-saving-lakeland-mans-life"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55576","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=55576"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55576\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":55578,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/55576\/revisions\/55578"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/55577"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=55576"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=55576"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lakelandgazette.info\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=55576"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}