By Laura French
WASHBURN, N.D. — Three volunteer North Dakota EMTs are credited with saving the life of a man who suffered multiple heart attacks and had no pulse for more than 37 minutes.
Washburn EMTs Jill Weiss, Emily Rettertath and Mark Lelm were nominated by Clark Price for the NG911 Institute’s Carla Anderson Heart of 911 Award following the medical emergency Price suffered in May, which he says he never would have survived if not for the crew’s actions, according to KFYR-TV.
Price was working at his family-owned agriculture business on May 18 when he began feeling chest pains and passed out. An employee called 911, and when the EMTs first arrived and he came to, he told them he thought he was having a seizure.
The EMTs said Price was actually suffering a heart attack, and that he had at least three more heart attacks in the ambulance, ultimately going into cardiac arrest. During the 40-mile drive to the hospital, Weiss and Rettertath performed CPR for 20 minutes before asking Lelm, who was driving, to stop the rig and help set up an automatic compression device.
Price says he had no pulse for 37 minutes in the ambulance and didn’t regain a pulse until about 10 minutes after arriving at the emergency department. He said he had four stents placed in his heart and was in a medically-induced coma for eight days, and his wife was told he had a 0.5% chance of surviving. However, he recovered, returning home on June 2 and earning the nickname “Miracle Man” from ICU staff.
“All the ICU doctors, all the nurses I had said if my first responders hadn’t done everything perfect, then the outcome never would have been the same,” Price told KFYR-TV.
Price posted a photo on Facebook in June showing his reunion with the three EMTs.
“These are the people that allowed me to have a second chance at life,” he wrote.