10/08/2025
Representatives from Immanuel, Bergan, and the Omaha Fire Department recently welcomed this cardiac arrest survivor (red shirt, center) and his family to the fire station. Crews received Code Save Certificates and the victim’s family members received bystander CPR certificates.
About one month ago, the victim was playing with his grandkids when he unexpectedly collapsed without warning. His daughter and another family member, both nurses, began CPR. Omaha’s Engine 23 crew arrived on location within 3 minutes of dispatch, took over CPR, and defibrillated the patient within the first 30 seconds of treatment, converting him to a perfusing rhythm. Medic 21's crew began post ROSC care including treatment for a "massive STEMI" that caused the initial arrest. ER staff and interventional cardiology teams from both Immanuel and Bergan also had to resuscitate the patient multiple times as he continued to go into refractory cardiac arrest. The teams were eventually able to cath open the offending artery. The survivor reports feeling "better than he has ever felt" and continues to push his rehab team to allow him to raise his exercise thresholds. With those same grandkids running around him today, climbing on the fire truck, the EMS crews and hospital staff were able to celebrate the fact that each link in the chain of survival worked for this patient and made this, and many more happy events, possible in the years to come.
