Those gathered at Fanshawe College Friday afternoon were treated to an emotional and, at times, teary-eyed occasion as cardiac arrest survivors were reunited with those who helped save their lives.
The event brought together 13 people from the London-Middlesex area who, over the past couple of years, had endured a cardiac arrest but were attended to by local first responders who helped save their lives.
Neal Roberts, the chief of the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, says the occasion serves as a reminder to emergency responders of one of the reasons they do their job.
“Emergency service personnel… often have little opportunity to be able to see what an impact they make in peoples’ lives each and every day,” said Roberts.
Survivors in attendance were reunited with paramedics from Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, ambulance communications officers from London Ambulance Communications Centre, firefighters from the London Fire Department and Adelaide Metcalfe fire department, and police officers from London Police Service.
Some of the stories of the survivors in attendance include those who suffered cardiac arrests after walking off the 18th green of a golf course, while riding a bike in London, shopping, driving and those who were simply getting ready for the day.
One of the survivors in attendance at the event was Jane Ann Cahill. On the morning of Dec. 15, 2021, Cahill was with her husband tending to their horses when she collapsed while holding one of the horses. After her husband Mike was able to get the horse into a corral, he called 9-1-1 and began attending to Jane Ann.
Mike says Curtis Dietze of the London Central Ambulance Communication Centre was instrumental in instructing him on proper chest compression until members of the Kerwood detachment of the Adelaide Metcalfe Fire Department showed up to take over.
Despite being in a coma for three days after the cardiac arrest, Jane Ann says she returned to work only one month after the incident.
“I am so thankful for everyone that responded to me,” said Jane Ann following the ceremony that commemorated the first responders of the 13 individuals in attendance.
“What they give up in their lives in order to be on call and be there to help us… we’re just so grateful.”
What made the fateful day of Jane Ann’s cardiac arrest even more over the top was that it was hers and Mike’s 15th wedding anniversary. While the planned steak dinner that evening had to be put on hold, Jane Ann and Mike say they are eternally grateful to those who came to her aid.
Along with honouring emergency responders, citizen responders, often family members of those affected, were honoured.
Cathy Burghardt-Jesson, warden for Middlesex County and member of the Middlesex-London Emergency Services Authority Board, says the day is an important reminder of knowing what to do if someone near you is suffering a cardiac arrest.
“You never know when you will be called to service,” said Burghardt-Jesson.
“You should never be afraid (to) act.”
According to the Middlesex-London Paramedic Service, around 40,000 cardiac arrests occur annually in Canada — on average, one every 13 minutes. Around 85 per cent of those incidents happen in a home or at a public venue, and it is estimated that only five per cent of people who have cardiac arrests outside of a hospital survive.
Roberts says in London and Middlesex last year, of 783 cardiac arrest incidents that took place outside of a hospital, 35 people were able to be discharged from hospital after the fact.
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