Mass. Man Praises Firefighters who Saved his Life

Nov. 17--SEABROOK -- To see the smile on Edward Patria's face, no one would believe that a couple of months ago he lay dead on his living room floor, in cardiac arrest for 45 minutes.

At yesterday's Board of Selectmen's meeting, Patria, 63, and his wife, Robin, had the chance to say a public thank-you to the men who saved his life the night of Aug. 30. They were the firefighters who never gave up on him, who pumped his chest for more than half an hour, inserting IVs, intubating him and using the defibrillator to deliver nine electrical shocks until his heart finally started beating again.

"After they'd shocked him seven times, I heard one of the firefighters ask: 'Are you going to call it?'" Robin Patria said. "I knew that meant call the time of death. I looked at my husband and yelled, 'Don't you dare die on me.' They shocked him two more times and his heart started again. His heart was beating at 10 percent when they transported him (to Exeter Hospital)."

He was in a drug-induced coma for more than two days while doctors tried to figure out what had caused Patria's heart to stop. Robin Patria said they found he didn't have a blockage or plaque in his coronary arteries, and that his heart was fine. What caused it to stop was "an electrical short circuit," she said, and he now wears a small defibrillator under his skin.

Patria recently started back to work part-time at Epping's Market Basket. But shortly after he got out of the hospital, Robin Patria paid a visit to Seabrook's Centennial Street Fire Station.

"I brought them a big pan of baked ziti that I made," Robin Patria said. "I had to go over and say thank you."

For the Patrias there aren't enough good things to say about the men who arrived at their home on the worst night of their lives.

"They were wonderful," Robin Patria said. "They did everything there was to do. When they left, my living room had papers and syringes and everything all over the floor. They came back after bringing my husband to the hospital and the firefighters cleaned it all up. They said they didn't want me to see it when I returned."

The Patrias have cause to be thankful, and town officials reason to be proud of their personnel. Yesterday, selectmen handed out citations to five of the firefighters who helped keep Patria alive, as fire Chief Bill Edwards told the story.

"I'm so proud our fire department did such a wonderful job," Selectman Aboul Khan said. "And this isn't the first time."

"This is the job they all do," Selectman Ray Smith said. "Sometimes the job requires they go one step beyond. This is one of those times they went more than one step beyond."

Awards went to firefighters Rayenold Perkins, Jeremy Wright, Russell Eaton and Barry Sargent, as well as on-call firefighter Nathan Mawson, who picked Aug. 30 for his "ride-along" tour. And driving his team to the scene that night was fire Capt. Harold "Tuggy" Hewlett, one the most veteran in the department, who was moved by the event.

"This is the second time in my 38 years as a firefighter that someone came by to shake my hand and say thank you," Hewlett said. "What made the difference was that his wife started CPR immediately to keep the blood circulating until we got there and could take over."

Robin Patria was just sitting watching television beside her husband when she heard him make a noise that sounded like a snore. She shook him to wake him to get him to go to bed, but he wouldn't wake up. When she realized he wasn't breathing and his heart wasn't beating, she screamed, called 911 and got help from an upstairs neighbor.

"We dragged him off the recliner and I started CPR," Robin Patria said.

Not formally trained in cardiac-pulmonary resuscitation, she had the night before watched a television program about the new protocols for CPR, never realizing she'd be called on to use it to help save her husband's life.

"If people have the opportunity to get training in CPR, they should do it," Robin Patria said. "It's important, and a little information is better than doing nothing."

Although he remembers nothing of what happened on Aug. 30 or even the two days following, Edward Patria understands his life was in the hands of some pretty determined people that night.

"The firefighters deserve the credit, and my wife," he said.

Copyright 2015 - The Daily News of Newburyport, Mass.