By Phil Anderson
Topeka Capital-Journal
TOPEKA, Kan. — Leslie Vetaw says she owes her life to Topeka firefighters after a recent medical emergency in which they provided first aid to her at a busy intersection near the Kansas Expocentre.
On Wednesday, she surprised firefighters at station No. 5, 720 S.W. 21st, with two homemade cakes and a pan of peach cobbler.
“There’s my hero,” she said as she entered the firehouse shortly after 1 p.m.
She recognized Capt. Todd Williams as one of those who had come to her aid. She threw her arms around his neck and gave him a big hug. Then, overcome with emotion, she wiped away some tears.
“Doing OK?” Williams asked.
Vetaw nodded.
About 5 a.m. on Feb. 8, Vetaw had a severe asthma attack and tried to drive herself to a Topeka hospital from her home near S.E. 36th and Adams.
Halfway there, she knew she wasn’t going to reach the hospital on her own. She couldn’t catch her breath and was having a panic attack, she said.
As she crossed a bridge just west of S.E. 21st and Adams, Vetaw said she prayed that God would somehow save her.
She said she looked ahead and saw a Topeka fire truck pulling away from a traffic light at S. Kansas Avenue and 21st Street. Vetaw went faster, but the light had changed to red when she reached the intersection. Worse, the fire truck had gone up and over a hill.
“I looked both ways,” said Vetaw, 55, who works for the Kansas Department of Social and Rehabilitation Services. “Then I went through the red light.”
She found the fire truck a few blocks west, stopped for a red light at S.W. 21st and Topeka Boulevard. The fire truck was returning from a call on the city’s east side.
Vetaw pulled up next to the fire truck and got the driver’s attention. Holding up a “puffer,” or inhaler, that she uses to open her airways, she let it be known she was having a breathing emergency.
Immediately, Williams, firefighter Craig Meinholdt and apparatus operator Mark Johnson got out of their truck and began to render aid to Vetaw, assisting her with oxygen and taking her pulse and blood pressure.
“One of the firefighters said, ‘I can’t find a pulse,’ ” Vetaw recalled. “Another firefighter came over and said, ‘She’s got one, but it’s weak.’ ”
Williams called for an ambulance. Within minutes, an American Medical Response ambulance arrived. Vetaw was taken to a Topeka hospital, where she stayed for several days.
She said firefighters were kind enough to move her vehicle off the street, parking it at a car dealer lot and putting a note on it so it wouldn’t be towed.
Vetaw said Williams advised her to call 911 the next time she has an asthma attack - something she vowed she would do.
Meinholdt and Johnson, who usually work out of other firehouses, weren’t at station No. 5 on Wednesday. Vetaw said she would fix them some homemade treats soon.
Williams said he appreciated Vetaw’s thoughtfulness in thanking firefighters for performing a service he said was in their line of duty.
“I’m just glad to know she’s doing good,” Williams said. “Usually, you never hear anything, and you kind of wonder how they’re doing.”
Vetaw said she wouldn’t think of not coming to the station to thank the firefighters.
As she lay in her hospital bed, she said, it was something she determined to do.
“These guys do more than put out fires,” Vetaw said. “They save lives.”