By Colneth Smiley
The Boston Herald
BOSTON — Former patients and their families met with 911 dispatchers yesterday at Boston EMS Dispatch Operations Center to thank them for being there when it mattered.
Last New Year’s Eve, a dispatcher helped Sarah Sawyers resuscitate her brother Jordan, 20, when he collapsed in their Jamaica Plain home with a severe asthma attack.
“I was terrified,’' Sawyers, 33, told the Herald. “I panicked . . . his nebulizer wasn’t working, he fell to the ground. He was turning blue.’'
Boston EMT William Lopez took the call that night.
“We had to calm the waters a bit and talk her into doing mouth-to-mouth for him. But before the ambulance got there, he started to come back and breathe on his own,’' Lopez said. He called Sawyers “a hero.’'
On Friday the 13th in February 2009, first-grader Olivia Quigley went into cardiac arrest at school. Teachers performed CPR on her until Boston EMTs could restart her heart with a defibrillator.
“I fainted,’' said Olivia, 8, clutching her Winnie The Pooh stuffed bear as she toured the EMS Dispatch Operations Center.
Her father, Joe Quigley, credited EMTs and dispatcher Michele Canavan with “putting a perfect plan in place,’' to save his daughter’s life.
“All these people that were involved, they helped my daughter,’' Quigley said. .
“It’s important for families to know this is a team effort,’' said Boston EMS spokeswoman Jennifer Mehigan. “Our staff doesn’t get a lot of recognition, but they are extremely dedicated and loyal and save lives every day.’'
Copyright 2010 Boston Herald Inc.