Toronto man thanks emergency workers for saving his life

Two years ago Jeff Brown suffered a near death experience. He collapsed in the lobby of his apartment building, completely unconscious, no vital signs.

“I was without oxygen to my brain for 12.5 minutes which is unheard of in the medical industry. Four cardiac arrests,” Jeff recalls in a shaky and emotional voice.

Jeff manages an apartment building. He had called 911 for a fire call, but little did Jeff realize it was him who would be the major emergency call that day. Four fire trucks, two EMS vehicles and the police were all on the scene.

When fire crews first arrived at the apartment building they came prepared to deal with a small kitchen fire. Instead, first responder fire fighter Josh Chrisholm and his crew were on their knees performing CPR.

“He actually suffered a heart attack in the lobby. So myself and a few other drivers took it upon ourselves to start CPR efforts in the hallway while the other firefighters dealt the kitchen fire,” Chrisholm tells Global News.

Eventually EMS was able to get a pulse. They then quickly transferred Jeff to St. Mike’s hospital where doctors worked on him.

Upon arrival Jeff suffered additional cardiac arrests.

As for the emergency workers, the story often ends there for them. They move onto their next call, rarely finding out if a patient survived.

It’s a traumatic experience they have to deal with each and every call. That trauma can lead to things like post traumatic stress disorder, or PTSD, an injury in the brain that can take years to present itself and years to overcome.

“The reality is we are all humans and we all come from families, so we have mothers, fathers, we have kids,” District Fire Chief, Paul Halls tells Global News.

“We see these people at their worst time and we start relating it to our own family; this could happen to our own family. We want to know the result. So PTSD is one of those things where you see people at their worst, going through the worst day of their life and you try to help them, but all of those little pieces stick in your head. So PTSD can affect you on the biggest calls, it can affect you on the smallest calls; just seeing a child smashed up in a car accident. PTSD is this weird thing where it can accumulate over the years and who knows what can bring it out.”

Since March, 25 emergency workers have committed suicide, suffering from PTSD. The most recent death was a police officer with York Regional Police. He was an eight-year veteran from New Market.

Renee Mair is the founder and president of Many-2-One. It is a charity group that focuses on putting a face to PTSD via a four-part video series that tells the story of a local paramedic who suffers from PTSD, recalling a traumatic call involving a woman who had given birth. The baby was found with no vital signs in the toilet.

The trauma from the event was overwhelming. The purpose of the video is remind people emergency workers are human and that they often face the most traumatic situations aside from the victims themselves.

“These are the unsung heroes in our communities,” Renee Mair tells Global News. “We expect them to be there in our darkest hours. We see the sirens and we think oh there is police officer going to a call, but we never think about the impact it has on them.”

The group is looking to provide support to all emergency and military personnel on a national basis. Mair says recognizing and acknowledging the work first responders and emergency workers do on a daily basis will go a long way in helping them deal with what they have to face on a daily basis.

“Quite often when they go on these calls … they don’t always get that closure that they need. So to be able to say thank you and to acknowledge the fact that they have seen some very dark things in their jobs … it’s not a traditional 9-5 job. They need to know they are not alone and we don’t take that for granted,” Mair says.

Emergency workers say if they had the opportunity to find out about the outcome after a call, it may help them cope with the trauma and perhaps feel at ease that they did everything they could. It would give them reassurance and closure.

In Jeff Brown’s case, his life was saved by the heroic efforts of Toronto Fire, EMS, and police. Jeff says he is alive today because of them, so the least he can do is give thanks.

On a cloudy, cool October day – fittingly,  Thanksgiving – Jeff got his wish, one that has been two years in the making.

Global News heard Jeff’s story and worked with Jeff, along with members of  Toronto Fire, EMS, and police, to track down the crews who came to the call on Nov. 3, 2012.

Emergency crews as far as London, Ontario came to Toronto on their day off to meet the man they all thought was dead. The meeting was emotional and powerful, both for Jeff and the first responders.

“This is the first time in my career and I know in many careers that we got to meet someone after the fact, this is amazing,” Jon Harper, the paramedic who was on the scene working to keep Jeff alive, tells Global News.

“I am very proud of that call. I felt that we worked together as a team extremely well. We acted really quickly which was great. To be able to meet him is exciting, its pretty cool,” Josh Chrisholm says. “A thanks is worth more than anything… it makes me feel like I am doing a good job. A thank you goes a long way. We don’t get them a lot and when we do get them, they last a while. I will always remember this. I will remember the day he came to the station, I will remember today.”

As for Jeff, through tears and emotion, he kept saying, “All I can do is say thank you, thank you for everything. You saved my life.”