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Hugo presents first Life Saving Awards, highlights AED program and teamwork
Summary
The Hugo City Council honored the multi-agency response that saved a resident’s life in February 2025, presenting its first Life Saving Awards and reviewing the city’s AED program, which now deploys 28 devices. Deputy Chief David Jensen recounted the incident that prompted the awards.
The City of Hugo on Monday presented its first Life Saving Awards, recognizing responders whose coordinated actions revived Dave Johnson during a February 20, 2025 cardiac arrest.
Deputy Fire Chief David Jensen, who delivered the account to the council, described the chain of survival: a 911 telecommunicator coached Johnson’s wife through CPR, Washington County deputies delivered an AED shock, and Hugo Fire and M Health Fairview EMS crews then provided advanced life support. "At approximately 05:39 on 02/20/2025, Dave Johnson and his wife, Angie, woke up as normal... she realized there was an issue with Dave," Jensen said in the presentation. Jensen named telecommunicator Shelly Tobas, deputies Alec Zachariasen and Ida Garcia, M Health Fairview paramedics, and numerous Hugo firefighters as part of the award cohort.
City staff reviewed the background of the Hugo AED program, noting it began in 2017 with eight donated machines and has grown through donations—primarily from the Hugo American Legion—to 28 city-owned AEDs today. The chief and deputy chief emphasized the quick-response model that positions devices with firefighters to speed arrival time. Jensen told the council the 2025 response was one of 21 cardiac arrest responses the department handled that year and that the event produced two documented saves in 2025.
Award recipient Dave Johnson addressed the chamber and thanked responders and his wife. "I don't remember much... the next thing I remember is waking up in the bed in the hospital," Johnson said, adding that his family had moved to Hugo only two weeks earlier and called the outcome a blessing. Mayor Mary Whitehead and council members applauded the team and invited honorees for a group photo.
Council members approved the awards presentation and paused briefly for a recess before continuing the agenda. The council also accepted the Hugo Firefighter Relief Association's announcement of a $30,000 gift earmarked for extrication tools intended for a newly approved rescue truck, a separate agenda action.
