Survivor Day Celebrates Lives Saved in 2023
The stories of 27 survivors and those who helped save them were shared during the Essex-Windsor EMS and Southwest Ontario Regional Base Hospital Program 11th Annual Survivor Day. The event, held May 24, 2024, at the St. Clair Centre for the Arts, celebrated survivors of trauma and out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in 2023.
Essex-Windsor EMS paramedics responded to more than 600 calls for patients with no vital signs in 2023. The 27 cases celebrated at Survivor Day highlight how the quick, informed actions of bystanders and the medical skills of paramedics can save lives.
“On Survivor Day we celebrate and share the stories of lives saved by Essex-Windsor EMS paramedics, and other responders and community members who stepped up to make a difference,” said Chief Justin Lammers. “These incidents are traumatic and things happen quickly. Survivor Day is a way of showing how grateful we are to everyone involved, as well as a special time to honour those whose lives were saved. Everyone who helps save a life is a hero, and survivors are our inspiration.”
The Survivor Day cases involved 72 paramedics (some who took part in more than one event), 35 firefighters, seven ambulance communications officers (one who was involved in multiple events), two police officers and 37 others who helped, including two physicians and a medical staff member who assisted in two separate cases. Four cases involved the use of publicly accessible automated external defibrillators.
During the Survivor Day ceremony, the survivors who attended were presented with rolled up and bottled printouts of their heart rhythms taken by paramedics. Those involved in saving them were presented with Essex-Windsor EMS “save” pins.
A story of one of the survivors is presented in a video during the ceremony. This year it was Jerry Lee’s story.
Jerry Lee’s Survivor Story
When Jerry Lee remembers the night strangers and responding paramedics restarted his heart, he thinks of his younger sister.
Joanne Wong, who lived in the Vancouver area, collapsed at work and died in October 2022. She was 60 years old. Lee, who retired from his job as an insurance agent at to the end of 2019, had always been active, playing hockey into his 50s and golfing four times a week. Yet, he hadn’t been feeling well for years, he said, and received a pacemaker after he had to be rushed to Erie Shores Healthcare in Leamington in May 2023. He knew he was vulnerable.
Still, it was a shock when he collapsed while playing pool with friends in a Windsor bar on Sept. 26, 2023. Fortunately, off-duty nurses A. Naomi Robertson and Chelsea Hebert and off-duty paramedic Jacob Vincent happened to be at the bar enjoying trivia night. They rushed to assist, performing CPR and having someone retrieve an automated external defibrillator that was available at another business in the same plaza. Meanwhile, Essex-Windsor EMS paramedics Shannon Johnston and Patrick Biczysko arrived on the scene and joined in the life-saving effort. They were followed by advanced care paramedic Andrew Peters and paramedic Shaun Rivard.
By the time Johnston, Biczysko and Peters were transporting Lee to Windsor Regional Hospital, he had been revived and was awake.
Lee doesn’t remember much. He was told his heart was shocked five times. His chest “was sore as hell” but he was alive. He was able to leave the hospital three weeks later, after an implantable cardiac defibrillator was put in his chest at the London Health Sciences Centre. He credits the Cardiac Wellness program at Hotel-Dieu Grace Healthcare with aiding his recovery.
Lee said he is grateful to everyone involved in keeping him alive to enjoy more time with his wife of 28 years, Stacey, and their two sons, Mike, 24, and Matt, 23 – as well as his daughter, stepdaughter and three grandchildren
“I have my good days and my bad days, but I’m having days. And that’s what you have to remember,” he said.
To see more photos and read about all the cases celebrated, go to the Survivor Day May 24, 2024, Stories page on the County of Essex website.
