By Jonathan Lemire and Michael White
Daily News (New York)
Copyright 2006 Daily News
Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune News Service
On his first day as a paramedic yesterday, Patrick Worms got right to work saving a life.
“It was like time stopped around us,” Worms said, describing how he and his partner resuscitated a 13-year-old girl who had collapsed in a classroom at Middle School 301 in Melrose, the Bronx.
“We just focused on each other,” he continued, referring to his colleague, Kevin Mazuzan. “Both of us just knew what needed to be done. I looked at him every once in a while, it being my first day, just to make sure I was doing the right thing at the right time.”
Worms, 40, had served the city for two years as an emergency medical technician, but yesterday was his first day as a paramedic after his Monday promotion. It was also the first time the father of three had administered advanced life support to a child who was near death.
Worms and Mazuzan were called to the school about 12:15 p.m. with a report of an unconscious girl, but when they arrived they were told school personnel were already administering CPR.
Worms found the petite girl on the floor in the middle of a classroom.
She wasn’t breathing, and her heart had stopped.
Within seconds, the paramedics had the girl hooked up to an intravenous line to administer drugs to get her heart going. They squeezed air into her lungs as they took turns pumping on her chest with their palms.
Suddenly, “her heart starting beating,” Worms recalled. “We had a rate of almost 150 beats per minute. We could actually see her heart pumping through her chest.” The girl was in critical but stable condition at Lincoln Hospital last night. It was unclear what caused her to collapse.
“I just wish she could have a full recovery and walk out of that hospital,” Worms said. “And I want to be there when she does.”