A week after a respiratory virus caused their infant son to stop breathing last month, doctors told Dan and Lisa Anthony that their son would survive.
Doctors also told the Newbury Park couple that their 5-week-old son, Tommy, survived because the people who treated him from the time he stopped breathing until he was moved to UCLA did their jobs perfectly. On Friday, the family thanked some of those people during a face-to-face reunion with emergency responders.
The Ventura County Fire Department holds a celebratory French toast breakfast every time its personnel save a life with CPR, but emergency responders rarely hear about their patients’ conditions later or meet with the families. The department’s breakfast Friday in honor of Tommy’s survival turned into an emotional reunion.
When the Anthonys brought Tommy and little sister Delaney, 3, to Fire Station 32 in Newbury Park for the breakfast, the firefighters, paramedics, 911 dispatcher and emergency room staff involved in his survival were all on hand.
The couple embraced the emergency responders, who took turns holding Tommy, now 10 weeks old and visibly healthy. Several told Dan the CPR he gave Tommy at the dispatcher’s direction was a key factor in saving his son and preventing brain damage.
Lisa called the emergency responders heroes and broke into tears. “Tommy wouldn’t be here if everyone didn’t do their job perfectly,” she said. “Tommy will be a firefighter when he grows up, if I have anything to say about it.”
Fire Department Engineer Sheri Wyche, who drove the ambulance that carried Tommy to Los Robles, smiled broadly though the hourlong event. “You just can’t describe it,” she said of seeing Tommy healthy and meeting his family. “It’s awesome.”
Tommy’s survival is one of a growing number of successful CPR cases the Fire Department attributes to new procedures and intense training, said Katy Hadduck, a nurse who works in the department’s CPR program.
Before 2006, county firefighters revived two or three cardiac arrest victims with CPR a year, Hadduck said. In 2006, that number rose to 10, and in 2007 it climbed to 15, she said.
Source: Ventura County Star / By Adam Foxman
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That my hood. I worked as a paramedic for AMR Ventura County before getting hired, and i do gotta say good job guys. Good Fire crew, Good AMR crew, and a damn good ER staff. Miss ya guys.
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