Cardiac arrest victim thanks Stillman EMS responders

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Stillman Valley emergency responders welcomed a guest who stopped by to thanks them for saving his life.

Stillman Fire had a great visitor last week. With permission from the family, I want to share this story.

A few months ago, Stillman Fire was dispatched for a man down. A neighbor saw Rick out mowing and when she looked back over, she saw Rick on the ground. A 911 call was placed. When we arrived on scene, Rick was down and his heart was in a shockable rhythm. CPR was started immediately, and he was defibrillated by our staff.

Often times our staff does not know the outcome after we transport someone to the hospital, but we followed Ricks progress through his family. Rick survived with no deficits.

The importance of early CPR can not be exaggerated!

In EMS we often discuss “saves” for people that survive a cardiac arrest. I often challenge that saying Fire and EMS save people more than that. Explaining to someone the importance of taking their prescribed medicine, giving other medicine in the ambulance for chest pain or trouble breathing, or even talking to a patient that just needs someone to trust and talk to are also great examples of how Fire EMS and dispatchers save lives every day. But in this case, a life was saved after cardiac arrest.

We were so fortunate to be there when the event took place but even more we are blessed to have Rick and his wife stop by and say hello to the troops.

Stillman Fire Protection District wants to thank this amazing community that supports our members so we can do this job we love so much.

Thank you to this community, thank you to our members, thank you to this crew, thank you to the Ogle County Tele-communicators, and thank you to Rick and his family for stopping by and reminding us again why we do this job.

Sincerely, Chief Hoefle