'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.
CTVNews.ca Top Stories
Large numbers of New York City police officers begin entering Columbia University campus
Large numbers of New York City police officers began entering the Columbia University late Tuesday as dozens of pro-Palestinian protesters remained on the campus.
Poilievre kicked out of Commons after calling Prime Minister Justin Trudeau 'wacko'
Testy exchanges between the prime minister and his chief opponent ended with the Opposition leader and one of his MPs being ejected from the House of Commons on Tuesday -- and the rest of Conservative caucus walking out of the chamber in protest.
Baby, grandparents among 4 people killed in wrong-way police chase on Ontario's Hwy. 401
A police chase which started with a liquor store robbery in Bowmanville Monday night ended in tragedy some 20 minutes later when a suspect fleeing police entered Highway 401 in the wrong direction and caused a pileup which killed an infant and the child's grandparents, as well as the suspect, investigators say.
Freeland leaves capital gains tax change out of coming budget implementation bill, here's why
Deputy Prime Minister and Finance Minister Chrystia Freeland will be tabling yet another omnibus bill to pass a sweeping range of measures promised in her April 16 federal budget, though left out of the legislation will be the government's proposed capital gains tax change.
Sword-wielding man attacks passersby in London, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring 4 others
A man wielding a sword attacked members of the public and police officers in a northeast London suburb Tuesday, killing a 14-year-old boy and injuring four other people, British authorities said.
Man dies after suffering cardiac arrest while waiting in ER, widow wants investigation
When an ambulance took David Lippert to the hospital in March of 2023, the 68-year-old Kitchener, Ont., executive was hoping to find out why he was feeling weak and unable to walk. Some 24 hours later, he was found unresponsive in the ER.
CSE says it shared information on Chinese hacking of parliamentarians in 2022
While several MPs and senators say they were only recently made aware of China-backed hackers targeting them, the Communications Security Establishment, one of Canada's intelligence agencies, says it shared information about the incident with parliamentary officials in June of 2022.
WATCH Arnold Schwarzenegger spotted filming in Elora, Ont.
The name of the project has not been officially released although it’s widely believed to be the Netflix series FUBAR.
Eviction for landlord's use was legitimate, despite owners' partial move, B.C. court rules
A B.C. judge has upheld the eviction of a family from their North Vancouver townhouse, finding that the landlords did not take an unreasonable amount of time to move into the home after the tenants vacated it.