How do you show your appreciation to people who saved your life?

The Rutgens family and matriarch Joanne Rutgens gave it their best try on Sunday when they brought gifts and paid for brunch at Mario’s Maples Supper Club in Peru for Kim Espinoza and Alisa Ellerbrock Bezely.

But, Joanne told them both, “I’ll never be able to thank you girls enough.”

Joanne, 82, of Cedar Point had several medical problems to overcome this fall and early winter. But she’s on a road to recovery. Her family and her husband, Dave, say they believe the quick response by Espinoza and Bezely not only saved Joanne’s life, but also thwarted oxygen deprivation that can cause severe brain damage.

Joanne and her husband were just sitting down for dinner at Koncz’s in La Salle when Joanne went into cardiac arrest.

Alisa Bezely also had gone to Koncz’s for supper.

“There was a commotion behind me and somebody said to me ‘I need you over here,’” said Bezely, a special-education aide and life skills instructor at La Salle-Peru Township High School who has training in cardiopulmonary resuscitation. In fact, she had just had a refresher class in CPR two weeks earlier.

Someone in the pub yelled to Bezely because they thought she had training. Bezely went over to help, assessed the situation, found no pulse and yelled for someone to call 911. Espinoza usually waitresses on Fridays at Koncz’s but went in that Saturday to do prep work.

So, by chance Espinoza was there on a Saturday. And coincidentally, she had just had a CPR refresher course two days earlier as part of her support-staff job at the Illinois Veterans Home at La Salle.

People helped Bezely lower Joanne from a chair and lay her on the ground, and Bezely started doing CPR — 20 chest compressions, two breaths, 20 compressions, two more breaths and 20 more compressions.

Espinoza saw Bezely was getting tired. Espinoza took over the chest compressions, and Bezely provided mouth-to-mouth again. First-responding emergency medical technicians arrived and took over.

Neither knew for certain how long they were performing CPR. “It seemed like forever,” Bezely said.

Joanne’s daughter-in-law, Sally, said the people at Illinois Valley Community Hospital told the family, “if it was not for those two girls, she would not have made it to the hospital.”

The two impromptu life-savers said they were not, however, the ones who revived Joanne. She did gasp once while they were doing CPR. Family members said EMTs used the defibrillator at least twice before she was taken to the hospital.

Dave said he believes the CPR efforts by the two good Samaritans not only saved Joanne’s life but preserved her quality of life.

“They got air to her lungs,” Sally said.

They’re planning to take a trip through the South to Jacksonville, Fla., to see her new great-grandchild.

Also attending the celebratory brunch Sunday were Sally’s husband David “Gus” Rutgens, Joanne’s daughter Susie and her boyfriend Mark Zygmunt; Joanne’s granddaughter, Hope; and Joanne’s son, Steve.

“Our family would also like to honor and thank the EMTs, IVCH ER department, and Chris Tondi from IVCH admitting department,” the family noted.

They’re also grateful to the staff at Peoria — where Joanne was taken for two weeks and who brought Joanne through some rough times there — and to the staff at St. Margaret’s in Spring Valley, who helped get some issues regulated so she could go home.

But they’ll never forget the two restaurant customers who rushed to provide assistance. “They gave us more time, and she’s just the most amazing mother-in-law and mother we could ever ask for,” Sally said.

Craig Sterrett can be reached at (815) 220-6935 or csterrett@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @NT_NewsEditor.