Marshals credited with saving a life

By Jeff German

Monday, July 14, 2008 | 2 a.m.

To deal with his traffic ticket, 73-year-old Rudolph Pristow walked five blocks in blistering 110-degree heat Tuesday afternoon to get to the Regional Justice Center.

By the time he got into the air conditioning of the courthouse, Pristow was feeling ill. He told courthouse marshals he thought he had indigestion.

The marshals sat him down outside the metal detectors until he told them he felt good enough to go.

But as Deputy Marshal Ron Fox escorted him through the crowded lobby, Pristow collapsed in his arms, suffering a massive heart attack.

Fox and several other deputies performed CPR and shocked Pristow’s heart with one of the eight defibrillators kept in the courthouse. Pristow’s heart stopped and started again several times, as deputies attended to him until paramedics arrived.

Paramedics wheeled Pristow off to Valley Hospital, and a television station later reported that Pristow had died.

But the next morning, the deputies learned that Pristow had survived, making it through emergency open heart surgery to relieve blocked arteries.

That afternoon, as word spread throughout the courthouse of the life-saving efforts of the marshals, district judges singled out Fox and seven other deputies for heroics, giving them certificates of appreciation at a public meeting.

In addition to Fox, seven deputies were recognized: Robert Pastorious, Tom Lemke, Travis Newcomb, Jason Dean, Karl Beavers, John Burdette and Debbie Prosser.