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A life saved, against the odds
POLAND
The firefighters at the Western Reserve Joint Fire District were just doing their job, they say.
To Jack Malloy, however, they are heroes.
On April 18, Malloy collapsed in the front yard of his Poland home.
He didn’t know it at the time, but from the moment he went into cardiac arrest his chances of surviving without brain damage were about 3 percent, according to the paramedics who responded to the scene.
Thanks to the quick response from four firefighters/paramedics and one firefighter/emergency medical responder, however, Malloy, 63, is alive and well today.
Abigail Cline, 22, of Warren; Kyle Conklin, 24, of Lowelville; Janett Ziegler, 21, of Poland; Nicholas Graf, 24, of Berlin Center; and Gio Melia, 29, of Poland — all volunteers — received a life-saving award at the district’s Christmas party Dec. 6 for their success in saving Malloy.
“The reason we do this is because very rarely when you use CPR do you get a positive response,” said fire Lt. Tony Tucci.
Tucci said the district only honors those whose efforts actually saved a life. If responders resuscitate someone and the victim only survives for a few days afterward, “we don’t consider that a save,” he said.
An even better reward came a few days later, however, when four of them got to meet Malloy.
“It’s rare that you get to meet them,” Ziegler said. “It’s kind of like — you can’t explain it. It’s very special.”
“Thank you all so much. I owe my life to you,” he told them after a round of emotional hugs and handshakes.
“They’re my heroes,” he said, choking back tears.
Together the group recalled that spring day.
“I was at home. He was in the front yard cutting the grass, and someone came around and got me,” said Laura Malloy, Jack’s wife. “[It was] an absolute sense of unreal. And, what can I do until the paramedics arrive? To me it seemed like 10 lifetimes.”
“We got on scene, and he was laying in the front yard,” Graf said. It was determined that Malloy was in cardiac arrest.
“So we initiated compressions,” with all five of them taking turns doing them, Graf said. They got a faint pulse just before the ambulance took him to a hospital.
“Usually you do not save someone in cardiac arrest,” Graf said. “It’s always special when you get a save because it’s rare.”
“It was the most amazing thing. It was a miracle,” Laura said. “I will be forever grateful to them for what they did for us.”
The group believes the quick response and the fact that there were five responders made the save possible.
As for the life-saving award, they all agreed it was nice, but unnecessary. “It was good enough for all of us to know he’s here,” Conklin said.