Quick response by Zapata nurses & EMTs revive party guest

 

By María Eugenia Guerra

 

"It was a tough act to follow, but the celebration went on," said Zapata banker Renato Ramirez of his recent 64th birthday party at which two nurses and Zapata EMT's revived heart attack victim Gilberto Salazar. "He was dead when he hit the floor," Ramirez said of the Río Grande City guest who was later taken to Laredo .

Nurses Tabitha Garza of San Ygnacio and Abby Gonzalez of Zapata, guests at the party, were quick to begin CPR on Salazar, along with a former firefighter named Manuel Ramon. "They worked over him and brought him back," Ramirez recalled. "Then the EMTs showed up."

"We were there in about one minute and we took over the CPR efforts the two nurses had started, " said Zapata Fire Chief J.J. Meza. Salazar was revived with defibrillators operated by firefighters Billy Butterfield and Gavid Cuellar. Captain Freddie Hernandez and firefighter Larry Ramirez were also part of the lifesaving effort.

"The defibrillators record minute by minute what is happening to the patient and tell us whether there is a heartbeat and when to try again," said Chief Meza, adding that all 24 Zapata Fire Department personnel are cross trained as EMS techs. "Including me," he said.

"I was just doing my job," said firefighter Billy Butterfield of San Ygnacio. "We got the call that someone had passed out at the party. When we arrived, sheriff's officers were shouting at us that he was turning gray. We gathered up the auto defibrillator, an intubation kit, the ambu bag, backboard, stretcher, and oxygen. When we got there, two other guests at the party were doing CPR on him. He had no pulse. They kept on trying to revive him as we got ready," said Butterfield, a native of Union Mills, Indiana.

"We took over CPR, put the defibrillator on him which told us what we needed to do," said Butterfield. "We got a pulse back and got him in the ambulance where we could have the environment we needed to work on him. By the time we got to the emergency room, we had him breathing again. He was semi-conscious and then later he was taken to a hospital in Laredo . The real heroes that night were those two women."

"We do something we love," said Chief Meza. "If I died in the line of duty, I died doing what I love. I am very fortunate, and so are the residents of Zapata County to have the professionals we have in the Fire Department. They are very skilled, very committed, and I might add, very underpaid."

Of the rest of the evening of his birthday celebration, Ramirez said, "There was a good, long pause of respect and concern, and then the music started up again. He's a lucky man for having been able to get the kind of help he got and so quickly."