Brentwood Fire Chief Ted Jury Monday at the Brentwood Board of Aldermen meeting recognized Brentwood and Richmond Heights emergency crews and East Central Dispatch Center dispatchers who saved the lives of two Brentwood residents on two different incidents. All were given the Brentwood Fire Department Clinical Save Award. The incident descriptions are from the Brentwood Fire Department.
January 20
East Central Dispatch Center received a 911 call from a caller who said her husband, Ron Wagoner, was unconscious and not breathing. The dispatchers rapidly processed this call, dispatched emergency crews to the scene, and began life saving emergency medical dispatch instructions.
The dispatchers instructed the caller how to perform CPR to provide critical oxygenation and blood circulation for the patient until EMS crews could arrive. The call was received, dispatched and the first Brentwood unit arrived on the scene in less than three minutes.
Crews from Brentwood Pumper 2514 and Richmond Heights Ambulance 2117 quickly responded to find the man with no pulse, and not breathing, but with CPR in progress. Working together, the Brentwood and Richmond Heights crews began advanced cardiac life support measures in an attempt to resuscitate this patient.
After extensive resuscitation efforts and CPR the patient was rapidly transported to the hospital in the Richmond Heights ambulance with medics from both fire departments working in a coordinated effort to resuscitate the victim.
The patient went through a significant recovery process and was discharged from the hospital to continue therapy at home.
Brentwood
- Capt. Richard Kerr
- Lt. Dave Bruno
- FF/EMT Tim Hammer
- FF/Medic Dan Schafer
Richmond Heights
- FF/Medic Brian Barteau
- FF/Medic Stephen Niemeyer
ECDC Dispatchers
- Paula Duechler
- Jill Young
March 1
East Central Dispatch Center received a 911 call for a man, Bud Schilling, who was found unconscious and not breathing while shoveling snow. The dispatchers dispatched emergency crews to the scene, and began life saving emergency medical dispatch instructions to two bystanders.
The dispatchers instructed bystanders how to perform CPR to provide critical oxygenation and blood circulation for this patient until EMS crews could arrive. The call was received, dispatched and the first Brentwood units arrived on the scene in less than three minutes.
Crews from Brentwood Pumper 2514 and Brentwood Ambulance 2517 responded to find the man with no pulse, and not breathing, but with bystander initiated CPR in progress.
The Brentwood crew began advanced cardiac life support measures. Defibrillation was administered, which resulted in the patient regaining a normal heartbeat.
The patient regained consciousness, and after being placed in the ambulance began talking to the crew. The patient was admitted to the hospital where after several days of treatment and therapy was released to continue to therapy at home.
Brentwood ambulance crew
- Lt. Matt Stoverink
- FF/Medic Robert Flamion
Brentwood pumper crew
- Capt. David Niemeyer
- FF/EMT Larry Drexler
- FF/Medic Steve Brown
- FF/Medic John Youngblood
ECDC Dispatchers
- Kurt Ploch
- Mike Vise
I have been very hard on ECDC for exceedingly poor, circus-like performance. If this recognition indicates they have improved their professionalism and job accomplishments –resulting in saving lives–I am pleased with the citations. I never doubted our own in-house FR’s abilities.
It is very honorable to support them for saving lives. My only question is, isn’t that their job. Should we be honoring all the teachers that graduate 100% of their students.
Shouldn’t we then be honoring the crossing guard at Brentwood and White if we get through the school year with no kids being run over by cars.
To me it is a little over the top when we have to honor someone for doing what they are simply paid to do.
If this sounds cold it is not my intention. Take a look at how many lives are saved everyday in the city of St. Louis from gun shot wounds, accidents, heart attacks and strokes and ask yourself why they don’t celebrate every time a first responder simply does their job. Nothing I am reading says they went above and beyond their simple call of duty.
To me it again shows that are city employees are simply very spoiled and expect a pat on the back of simply doing what they are paid to do.
I agree, why should we give accolades to someone for simply doing their job. That said, not a single first responder wanted or asked for a “pat on the back” for doing their job. Did you ever ask yourself, maybe the loved ones of the individuals who were resuscitated wanted to say thank you to the first responders for a job well done? Maybe we should stop honoring veterans on Veterans Day, after all, they were just doing their job.