The fact that two firefighter-paramedics used ropes to rappel down a 230-foot ocean cliff to rescue a boy who fell is in and of itself deserving of our EMS Hero of the Week recognition. But we also love the extra effort paramedic Marco Barros put in to help 4-year-old Sebastion Johnson stay calm.
“He wasn’t really talking, but I said ‘you know if you like Spiderman or superheroes, you know just try and think of them,” Barros told ABC7.
The boy was hiking with his parents and sister on a trail in California’s Bodega Bay, when suddenly he lost his footing and tumbled over the edge.
At first they thought he fell into the water, but rescue crews spotted him on the rocky beach below.
With flares from a Coast Guard motor lifeboat lighting the way, Barros and paramedic Josh Perucchi used ropes to make their way down the incline, and brought him up in a rescue basket.
“I was preparing myself going down to find the worst,” Barros said.
Sebastion was critically injured, but alive, and by the time he reached the top of the cliff and was loaded into an ambulance he was crying.
He was taken to Santa Rosa Memorial Hospital and in critical, but stable condition Sebastion suffered injuries to his head, wrist and leg. He had a blood transfusion on Tuesday, and was put in a medically-induced coma.
Many of the agencies that responded to the Monday night incident had participated in a rescue training a week before, just north of where the boy fell.
