Survivor Day a Celebration of Lives Saved
The stories of 25 survivors and the paramedics, ambulance communication officers, other first responders and community members who gave them a second chance at life in 2022 were celebrated Friday at the 10th Annual Survivor Day.
The event, which honours the survivors of trauma and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest, is put on by Essex-Windsor EMS and the Southwest Ontario Regional Base Hospital Program and was held at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts. As well as the 25 survivors, those recognized included 68 paramedics, 40 firefighters, 14 ambulance communications officers, 10 members of the public, five students and three police officers. Two cases involved the use of defibrillators that are accessible to the public.
“Survivor Day reminds paramedics, their first-responder partners and the public how special it is to be part of saving a life,” said Essex-Windsor EMS Chief Bruce Krauter. “It is a chance for survivors to tell their stories and thank those who helped save them. Paramedics respond to some extremely challenging calls, and not every life can be saved. I am grateful to the Essex-Windsor EMS staff who organize Survivor Day to make it a meaningful and cherished memory for all involved.”
Each year, a story of a survivor is highlighted during the ceremony. This year it was Cherry Tolentino’s story.
Cherry Tolentino’s Survivor Story
Frantic family members were gathered on the porch as the ambulance pulled up. Right away, the paramedics knew that what they had been told was an unknown medical emergency at a downtown Windsor home was something very serious.
Inside, 43-year-old Cherry Tolentino was sprawled on the living room floor. She had collapsed just before midnight on Oct. 21, 2022, as she and her 17-year-old son were pumping up an air mattress.
She had recently been hospitalized for two nights after suffering severe pain in her right calf and being diagnosed with deep vein thrombosis. She was still taking medication to treat the painful condition, which was why she had decided to sleep on an air mattress in the living room and not in the basement with her husband.
Cherry’s breathing was laboured as she pumped air into the large mattress. That is the last thing she remembers before she lost consciousness. Her shocked son immediately yelled for one of his sisters, who are 14 and 23, to call 911.
It was after midnight when paramedics Adrien Bezaire, Nick Chiarappa, Bradley Humber and Liam Loton received the dispatch call from communications officer Meghan Coletti.
“We knew even before we got out of the ambulance that something serious was going on,” said Bezaire, who is an advanced care paramedic with additional training in life-saving medical procedures. “When we entered the house, we found her on the living room floor. She was blue, unresponsive with no pulse. And that’s when we got to work. We did all of the resuscitation that we provide in the field on a primary care and advance care paramedic level.”
Then the paramedics rushed Tolentino to the Met campus of Windsor Regional Hospital, where they delivered her to a resuscitation room and hospital staff took over.
Afterward, Bezaire went to speak to Tolentino’s family in another room. It had been so hectic at the house that at one point he had raised his voice to the distraught family members, he said. He wanted to take a few moments to talk to them in a quiet setting before returning to the ambulance. Bezaire said he remembers the scared looks on their faces and thinking to himself: “I hope she makes it.”
Coincidentally, about a week later, Bezaire and Chiarappa were dispatched to transfer a patient between the two Windsor Regional Hospital campuses. It was Tolentino, still in a grave condition but alive.
The first thing she remembers after her collapse is waking up in the hospital’s intensive care unit and seeing the nurses and her sister, who is also a nurse. Tolentino was told she suffered a cardiac arrest after a blood clot lodged in her lung.
She remained in the hospital for a month. She was sent home with a walker and determinedly set out to learn to walk again with the help of physiotherapists and occupational therapists. Two months after going into cardiac arrest, she was able to cautiously walk on her own. On April 24, she was able to return to her job as a personal support worker at a long-term care home.
Tolentino said her children described the paramedics who helped save her as superheroes who used their powers to restart her heart. She wanted to say thanks, but she wasn’t sure how to contact them. Then she received the letter inviting her to Survivor Day.
“I am very thankful God gave me this second chance at life,” she said. “Also, I want to thank the paramedics who were there for me at a critical time… My kids remember and they are happy that there are people who can save lives.”
To see more photos and read about all the cases celebrated, go to the Survivor Day May 26, 2023, Stories page on the County of Essex website.
