By Laura Knowles
Intelligencer Journal
Copyright 2007 Lancaster Newspapers, Inc.
LANCASTER, Pa. — John Gibbel believes in guardian angels.
He should. Not only does Gibbel have four confirmed guardian angels, but he has as many as seven more of them.
They proved their “guardianship” March 6, when Gibbel was rescued from cardiac arrest by four members of Rothsville Fire Company who administered the life-saving electrical charge that restarted his heart.
“Without them I never would have had a chance of survival. My doctors told me that,” the Ballstown Road man said April 30 at Rothsville Fire Hall.
Gibbel, who has served as attorney for the fire company, offered big bear hugs to brothers Jim and Aaron Hoover and Jon Lamb, who, along with Ervin Zimmerman, arrived first on the scene. They administered the defibrillator signal and performed CPR before Warwick Ambulance Medic 12 arrived.
“They are my guardian angels,” said Gibbel, who attended the meeting with his wife, Ann. “I feel as if I have been redeemed. I have a whole new outlook on life.”
Rothsville Fire Company Chief Sam Young said the rescue was one of the most unusual and most successful ever for the fire company. In his 49 years with the fire company, Young had never heard of a rescue where life and property were so dramatically protected and saved. Young’s father, former Chief Claude Young, said he had never heard of it in his 63 years with the fire company.
The chief said initially responded to a call at the Gibbel residence for a brush fire, not a heart attack victim.
“I may be one of the only cases where my wife called 911 15 minutes before I needed it,” Gibbel said.
The crisis began when fire in a burn pit for garbage spread to trees. While his wife called 911, Gibbel rushed to try to put out the fire with a rake. He feverishly attempted to beat the flames down and, in moments, the first volunteer fire fighters arrived.
Gibbel remembered feeling dizzy and weak. He fell to the ground, and one of the firefighters yelled, “Man down.”
A second fire engine arrived, and the rescuers gave priority to the fallen victim. Jim and Aaron Hoover, Lamb and Zimmerman found Gibbel had no pulse and reacted with CPR and the AED. They restored his heartbeat as the ambulance arrived.
“I’ve never done anything like that before,” said Jim Hoover, 26. “I feel very good to know that I helped to save a man who is here today.”
“I know I wouldn’t be here if not for these heroes,” Gibbel said. “I owe my life to all of you. God bless you.”