The following individuals were presented Life Saving Awards by the City Commission last night: Allison Andrews (Spouse of patient); Stephani Groff (Dispatcher); Matt Kent (FF/Paramedic); Steve Fuller (FF/Paramedic); John Boles (FF/AEMT); Marcus Hamilton (Captain FF/AEMT); Jordan Drybread (FF/EMT); Shawn Wallis (Fire/EMS Chief); and David Cowan (Public Safety Director). Please join us in congratulating these individuals for their part in saving the life of James Andrews.
On August 26, 2017, at 9:19 a.m. – A Saturday morning our 911 center received a call from Allison Andrews reporting her husband had collapsed and was not breathing and did not have a pulse.
Our Fire/EMS Department works extremely hard every day to ensure our citizens have every opportunity at survival when faced with an emergency of any type.
However, If you do that line of work for any time at all – you do realize there is a higher power that plays into every equation too. The scene we are about to describe happens 1000 times every day across the United States.
Your chance of survival if nobody does anything but call 911: 12%
Your chance of survival if somebody calls 911 and starts CPR: 46%
Allison Andrews was coached to start CPR by EMD Dispatcher Stephani Groff. Fire/EMS Chief Shawn Wallis arrives on the scene and applies his AED shocking once without the return of a pulse. Fire/EMS Crews arrive and put Mr. Andrews on the auto-pulse, an automated CPR device. Within a few minutes, Mr. Andrews regained a pulse. From there he was taken to the Indy ER, and then to Jane Phillips in Bartlesville. Mr. Andrews has since fully recovered and returned back to work.
It is so vital that our citizens learn CPR and to be willing to perform CPR when the need occurs.