Ten years ago Wednesday, Albert Lean Gordon W. Sorensen got a second chance at life.

A 63-year-old man at the time, Sorensen became one of the first people ever to be saved with a defibrillator in the history of the Albert Lea Police Department.

It’s something he and his wife, Marilyn, said they will never forget.

Sorensen said the day of the incident, Sept. 9, 1999, he woke up, completed his morning routine and went to work as a sales representative for Waste Management.

At first he felt fine, he said, noting he had three or four appointments to attend to that day.

However, by 9 a.m. he had what he described as a burning sensation in his lower stomach.

“I had never experienced anything like that before,” he said. “I thought it was heartburn.”

So, he bought a pack of Tums, but they didn’t really have much of an effect, he said.

Soon, it was time for his last appointment, but Sorensen said he “just wasn’t feeling right.”

He elected to come home early.

He said the last thing he remembers is standing in his kitchen, talking about mowing the yard with his wife. The next thing he knew, he woke up in the hospital.

His wife said shortly after their conversation that day she was in a different part of the house when she heard scratching on the screen door.

“I thought, ‘Well that’s unusual, doesn’t sound like the lawn mower,’” she said.

That’s when she walked into the garage and saw her husband lying on the floor in front of the car.

He was suffering from cardiac arrest.

She grabbed the cordless phone and called 911.

Albert Lea police officer Bill Villarreal, who now works at the Albert Lea Family Y, was then at Southwest Middle School working as the school liaison officer. He arrived first at the scene, followed by officer Al Harris.

According to a Sept. 29, 1999, Tribune article, Villarreal said when he arrived at the Plainview Lane home, he saw Sorensen catch his last breath.

Villarreal began CPR until Harris — who was on Jefferson Avenue at the time of the call — arrived.

Harris brought the defibrillator, and the two officers quickly attached two pads to Sorensen’s chest.

Within six minutes, three electrical shocks were directed through Sorensen’s body and his pulse returned.

“It’s like being born all over again,” he said. “I’m getting a second chance.”

Villarreal recalled the life-saving experience as “an incredible save.”

“Every time I see him it’s an incredible reminder,” Villarreal said. “Just that one incidence alone has left a big impact on my life in how it made me feel.”

Albert Lea Police Chief Dwaine Winkels said the defibrillator has been one of “the single greatest changes in law enforcement and life-saving tools.”

There are now usually two to four saves with the device each year within the department, Winkels said.

Also during the last 10 years, the defibrillator program has expanded so that every marked Police Department car has a defibrillator in it. The Freeborn County Sheriff’s Office also tries to put one in each of its patrol cars as well, he noted.

The school liaison officers have access to them and more employers are looking at adding them, too.

While saving a life is pretty rare for an officer in his career, Winkels said he thinks a good share of his officers have a life-saving pin because of the defibrillator.

The device is used to control heart fibrillation by applying an electric current to the chest wall or heart.

The police chief said many of the defibrillators within the department have been donated to the department by survivors or families of survivors.

Ironically in this case, the defibrillator that saved Sorensen’s life was donated by Stan and Skeeter Johnson, friends and former neighbors of the couple.

As the Sorensens celebrate the 10th anniversary of the incident, Sorensen said there’s been many changes that have taken place in his life.

He said he’s “had to change his ways.” He attended cardiac rehab for an hour a day, three days a week for six weeks.

He also no longer smokes.