By Brandon Evans | Published Thursday, October 22, 2009
Samuel Gary, 67, of Newark, remembers very little from Monday, Sept. 28. "All I remember is for some reason I felt bad enough to call my son, and I also called my girlfriend at work," Gary said. "But I don't remember what was said."
"He called me at work and said he wasn't feeling too good," Phyllis Ramos said. "I called him back and got a busy signal. I got scared and decided I better go."
Ramos rushed to the house and found Gary lying down. He stood up and then collapsed onto the bed.
"I saw his eyes roll into the back of his head," she said. "In my mind, I thought he was having a heart attack. He turned plumb purple."
She called 911 and within a few minutes five members of the Newark Volunteer Fire Department responded to the house on Pettit Street.
"When we got there, he was lying on the bed," said assistant fire chief Jerry Taylor. "There was no pulse, and he wasn't breathing."
"For a few minutes, he was technically dead," said firefighter and paramedic Kenny Thompson.
The responders proceeded to give CPR and a series of shocks with an automated external defibrillator (AED).
"With the third shock he started breathing on his own," Taylor said. "After the fourth shock, his pulse came back."
Lifesavers
On Saturday night at the Newark Fire Department, right before a fundraising cake auction, the five men who responded to the call received Lifesaver Awards.
Gary was on hand to distribute the awards to Taylor, Chief James Edgemon, 1st Lt. William Terry, 1st Capt. Mark Killough and 2nd Lt. Justin Davis, all of the Newark Volunteer Fire Department.
"In my opinion, this is the most honorable award one can get in our line of work," Thompson said.
"I appreciate what they did for me very, very much," Gary said. "I am very thankful. Although I did give them a hard time for hurting my chest."
Gary suffered a few broken ribs and some chest burns from the lifesaving procedure, but it's a small price to pay for being resurrected.
"When you see this, it makes you feel good about what you do," Taylor said. "We do this job for this reason."
Taylor admitted that the odds of bringing someone's pulse and breath back in such a situation are daunting.
"There is a 90 to 95 percent fail rate," he said. "And to have someone walk out of the hospital four days later is even more unlikely."
The Newark Fire Department received new AEDs from the county within the last year. Taylor said the new technology is what allowed them to save Gary's life.
The previous defibrillators only allowed for three shocks, while the new AEDs allow for unlimited jolts. And it was the fourth that revived Gary's pulse.
Back to life
The day after Gary's heart attack, Taylor visited him at Wise Regional Health System in Decatur.
"He was sitting up in bed talking to his sister," Taylor said.
But Gary doesn't remember anything until he returned home a few days later with a few stints in his heart.
Gary only recalls one clear image from the day of the heart attack.
"I had an out of body experience," he said. "I saw myself and my girlfriend standing in the doorway of my home."
A lot of factors merged together just in time to save the life of Gary, who has spent his life working as a truck driver and in construction.
"He doesn't know how lucky he is," Ramos said. "Some might have given up, but these guys didn't."
The only regret Gary has from the experience is that his doctor told him he has to quit smoking cigars.
