'You guys saved my life': N.S. man pays tribute to first responders

Nearly five months after suffering a cardiac event, a fortunate Maritimer has been reunited with the first responders who saved his life.

On Oct. 2, 2021, Dan Eddy was working in his backyard. After lifting a couple of heavy cement blocks, he began to feel some pain.

“I said, ‘I must have just pulled a muscle or something,’ and I went over and grabbed the other one, about 75 feet away, and I made it to the stairs with that one and then I immediately collapsed on the stairs,” said Eddy.

“The joke in our family is my wife never answers her phone, but I called her from my cell and said, ‘Can you come up? Something’s wrong, I’m in trouble.’”

Eddy’s daughter then called 911.

“The 911 operator was very calm and kept her calm. Within just a few minutes, the paramedics were at my door,” said Eddy.

“My first thought was, ‘Wow, they were here really quick.”

Paramedic Heather MacEachern says she had been dispatched to a call in another part of Fall River, N.S., that day which did not require transport.

“We saw the call come in, so we just turned around and continued towards it because we knew we were the closest unit,” said MacEachern.

Phil McCormick was the other paramedic on scene. He says as soon as they saw Eddy they could tell he was having a significant cardiac event.

“Those two paramedics, and the 911 operator, they saved my life,” said Eddy.

“When I got to the OR and they put a stent in, the first thing the cardiologist said is, ‘Those two paramedics saved your life. Twenty more minutes and you would not have made it.’”

Because of the care he received, Eddy wants to bring attention to the work done by paramedics and 911 operators.

“They are the most underrated, underpaid staff in North America,” said Eddy.

“We don’t have enough paramedics in our province and I think what we can do to incentivise them to come here and stay, like tax breaks and things that we’ve done for other industries, I think it’s long overdue.”

He fought back his emotions Friday as he expressed his gratitude to the first responders.

“You guys saved my life,” he said.

Brian Stockdale is one of the people Eddy thanked. A paramedic for over 25 years, he is a medical communications officer at the EHS Medical Communications Centre.

“This is the first time I’ve been involved with something like this. It’s quite awesome,” said Stockdale.

MacEachern says she became a paramedic in hopes of changing at least one person’s life.

“So, the fact that we were able to do that for this call and to meet him here today is pretty extraordinary,” she said.