WILKES-BARRE, Pa. — On June 20, Capt. Travis Temarantz, Firefighters Danielle Illiano, Richard Machey, James Starosta, and Paramedic Brandon Grohowski responded to what they thought was a normal, unresponsive person call on Blackman Street.
Both ambulances were busy responding to other calls, so they took a fire truck to respond. When they arrived on the scene, they had to quickly use an AED on a 60-year-old man in cardiac arrest.
"He had no pulse and not breathing; for all practical purposes, he was not alive," said Wilkes-Barre Fire Chief Jay Delaney, describing the condition of the man.
After CPR and multiple shocks were completed, Capt. Temarantz and his crew got the man's pulse back before an ambulance arrived.
"To see the teamwork go on and the outcome that we had, honestly, I get the chills just thinking about it," said Temarantz. "That day, to have the patient breathing by the time we got there, we don't get those outcomes all that often,"
The group left from the newly reopened Wilkes-Barre South Station. The location is up and running thanks to an agreement between Mayor George Brown and the firefighter's union, allowing for a much quicker response time when minutes truly mattered.
"The fact that the person they saved their life couldn't be here today because he was back at work after nine days is just pretty amazing," said the chief.
And that's just some of the upgrades for this department. Money from the American Rescue Plan helped buy two new ambulances. It expands its fleet to alleviate the need to respond to EMS calls in fire trucks.
"The public wonders why a fire engine goes to a medical emergency. They learned today what our firefighter EMTs can do," added the chief.
They are giving the department the tools they need to continue giving the gift of life.
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