While there are no adequate words to express our gratitude to the first responders from Fire Station 59 in Rough and Ready and the PVFD (Penn Valley Fire Department) for their crucial role in saving my husbandโs life recently, Iโll offer what words I can.
If station 59 had not been open, I donโt think he would have survived. So, thank you to everyone that worked to keep that station open through a funding crisis and threatened closure. Thanks to the incredible team that responded, my husband is alive and back home after an extended hospital stay. ย He had a massive heart attack, with no cardiac history, and I called 911 and started CPR.
According to their call logs, the team responded within 4 minutes! They were calm, professional, and extremely capable and worked very efficiently as a team. They assumed CPR and had to defibrillate a couple times and give meds, but he got a regular heart rate back!
They transported him to SNMH (Sierra Nevada Memorial Hospital), and more kudos go to Dr. Bailey Roche at the ER. Dr. Roche diagnosed the situation quickly as a massive heart attack that required immediate stent opening, and got him quickly and smoothly transferred directly to the Cardiac Cath lab at Sutter Roseville, bypassing their ER. Dr. Roche was not only a fabulous physician, but he saw what a wreck I was, and offered what encouraging words he could, given the very uncertain prognosis at the time. He was kind and compassionate, as were the rest of the hospital staff.
The good news is that my husband has made an almost full recovery, given that the heart muscle will need to heal and there is still a long road ahead. I wasnโt sure I would ever see him walking or talking again, and he is doing all of that!
None of that would have been possible without the impressive first responders and the team at SNMH. If thereโs any moral to this story, it would be- learn/know CPR, and support your local fire department!
Editor’s note: For privacy reasons we’re withholding the name of the person who send the note.