Editor:
In the early hours of May 25, my husband suffered a nearly fatal heart attack. Waking up at 12:30 a.m. with severe chest pain, or as my husband described it, “a brick in my chest” he sensed that this was a critical situation. He urged me to call 911, which I did and gave him an aspirin to swallow, while we waited for the ambulance to arrive. Less than 10 minutes later Lena and Sabrina were with us in our bedroom and began to place nodes on his body for an ECG. Almost immediately after this my husband went into cardiac arrest and stopped breathing.
Lena and Sabrina (full names unknown) pulled him off the bed and onto the floor and began CPR. Sabrina pumped his chest with a strong rhythmic force, while Lena set up the defibrillator and assembled the oxygen mask. These two women worked in tandem and with calm assured professionalism and controlled urgency to restore his breathing. Their knowledge, skills, prompt action and persistence saved my husband’s life. We owe an incalculable debt of gratitude to these two paramedics and to the two other paramedics who came later to help with moving my husband down the stairs and into the ambulance. I cannot praise the paramedics enough for their efforts on the night of May 25, and wanted to acknowledge in some small way the invaluable, lifesaving work that they do.
Thank you.
Jan Holt
Gibsons
