By Michelle Guffey
South Carolina Bureau
Copyright 2007 Southeastern Newspapers Corporation
AIKEN, S.C. — When two Aiken County paramedics pulled an unconscious 70-year-old man from his smoke-filled home in January, neither was thinking about awards or accolades.
As Larry Elsey and Jay Evans see it, a life needed to be saved.
“We like to think anyone else in our position would have done the same thing,” Mr. Elsey said.
“I was just doing my job,” Mr. Evans said.
Both are now recognized for doing more than that.
Phillip Clarke, EMS coordinator, nominated the medics for the Curtis P. Artz award - a statewide honor given to those who go above and beyond the call of duty as it relates to EMS. On April 21, the Lowcountry Regional EMS Council honored the two men with the award.
“I heard the folks talking about the call they went on and felt like it was worth nominating them for what they did,” Mr. Clarke said. “Because it’s not something that folks in EMS do everyday.”
On the morning of Jan. 29, the two men responded to a call for an unknown medical complaint at a home in the 500 block of Chatham Street in Aiken.
Richard Byrd had placed the call when he arrived and found the residence locked, with no sign of his father. Gilbert Byrd had not been to work that morning.
When Mr. Elsey and Mr. Evans arrived, Mr. Elsey noticed smoke coming from a rear window of the house. Dispatch notified the fire department.
Worried about the man’s well-being, Mr. Evans, a former firefighter, kicked in the front door, and Mr. Elsey went around to the back door.
“Jay is the one who got to (Mr. Gilbert) first,” Mr. Elsey said. “His experience (as a firefighter) is what made everything go smoothly.”
The medics discovered Mr. Gilbert on the kitchen floor, where he had passed out. A pot on the stove had caused the fire.
The EMS crew took Mr. Gilbert outside through a rear door of the home and rushed him to the emergency room. He suffered burns on his arms and smoke inhalation.
“These two individuals made a lifesaving decision in a split second,” Mr. Clarke said in his nomination letter. “They knew that it would take the fire department time to respond and gain entry.”
Mr. Clarke stated that Mr. Evans and Mr. Elsey did not hesitate to put their lives in danger to rescue Mr. Gilbert.
One of the award’s criteria is that the action be taken not so much on “blind risk, but on a well-thought-out response to a medical emergency where the situation required extraordinary performance in order to save a life and where an option not to act could have been exercised.”