SANTA BARBARA, Calif. (AP) – A guest at a party who collapsed from cardiac arrest was in luck: The room was packed with cardiologists attending an American Heart Association fundraiser.

“If you have to go down, that was the place, I guess,” said Dr. Richard Westerman, a cardiologist who helped save the man.

“It looked like he was a goner,” said Santa Barbara City Councilman Brian Barnwell, who was among the 300 people at the $250-a-plate black tie event.

Several doctors revived the man by performing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. The man was taken to a hospital and has recovered, Westerman said Monday.

“He was fine,” Westerman said. “He was awake. He had a pulse. He was talking.”

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SYDNEY, Australia (AP) – In a case of life imitating fiction, a dog named Lassie apparently helped rescue its injured owner after he fell from a horse.

George Crowther, a 90-year-old farmer from Queensland state, broke his hip and pelvis when he was pitched from a bucking horse and his foot became caught in the reins, his son Austin told The Associated Press in a telephone interview Tuesday.

Crowther’s dog, Lassie, came to the rescue, snuggling in next to Crowther to keep him warm.

When darkness fell, Crowther’s wife came searching in the fields with a flashlight, but couldn’t hear the man’s feeble cries. She called for the dog and Lassie approached, whimpering.

“She said, ‘Where’s George?”‘ Austin Crowther said. The dog then led her to the paddock where Crowther lay cold and injured.

Crowther was recovering Tuesday after having 37 screws and two metal plates inserted into his pelvis and hip.

“He named her properly,” Austin Crowther said of his father’s four-legged friend.

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MENOMONIE, Wis. (AP) – A mystery that has lingered for more than 36 years – who stole the famous “S” from the clock tower at the University of Wisconsin at Stout? – has been solved.

One of the pranksters finally ‘fessed up.

Two art students removed the illuminated “S” early one morning in 1969 while two others stood guard. They tossed it into the Red Cedar River, said John Clavin, class of 1970.

“We thought of ourselves as guerrilla artists on a mission to beautify the campus,” wrote Clavin in a letter to the school, saying he decided to come clean after reading a story about the new “S” on the Bowman Hall Tower in an alumni publication.

Clavin said he and his fellow pranksters misunderstood the significance of the original “S,” which is mentioned in the school’s anthem: “On the banks of Lake Menomin stands our alma mater true, with tower high and brilliant ‘S,’ for her we’ll dare and do.”

They didn’t learn about its reference in the school song until several days after the prank.

“We were too busy singing Bob Dylan songs to be bothered by the alma mater,” he said. “The art students didn’t go to football games.”

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OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Firefighter John McDonnell was among the first responders at a house fire for one very good reason – it was his own house.

Authorities said it appeared the fire started after something fell on a wood burning stove used to heat the home. No one was inside the home at the time of the fire.

“Obviously, when you hear your own address come over, it’s something that just twists your gut up right away,” said Omaha Fire Department spokesman John Fuxa. “He was in one of the first responding companies.”

The fire was extinguished within a few minutes. The basement and main floor sustained heavy smoke damage, and the basement also sustained heavy water damage.

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