Residents in Pine Mountain Club are breathing a sigh of relief and saying their recently added medical services are paying big dividends. County fire officials say a crew from the station in Pine Mountain Club saved a woman's life after she suffered cardiac arrest. This all comes after a long, emotional fight by residents to get trained paramedics in their community.
Last November Pine Mountain Club residents voted to tax themselves $70 a year for paramedic services. Fire officials say the woman who suffered cardiac arrest last night is one of the first lives saved by the new program. But another resident says a firefighter-paramedic also saved her husband’s life and those $70 are worth every penny.
“It’s hard to recall exactly all the emotions but it was really scary. I didn't want to lose him,” Pine Mountain Club resident Alice Chitwood said.
Dale and Alice Chitwood remember the night Dale collapsed in their living room. It happened as the 79 year old recovered from brain surgery and about six weeks after the firefighter-paramedic program started in Pine Mountain Club.
“I got up saying I wasn't feeling well, started up to my chair and collapsed. I thought I was having a heart attack. I had some real bad pains to the chest,” Dale said.
Chitwood says a fire crew and a trained paramedic arrived at his door within minutes, administered an IV, and saved his life. He also says the day he collapsed the closest ambulance was in Arvin, more than 30 minutes away.
Before residents in Pine Mountain Club voted to pay for the program, Hall had one ambulance to service the entire mountain community and county firefighters in the area were not trained as paramedics.
Officials would not tell us the woman's name but say a firefighter-paramedic from the station saved her life last night after she suffered cardiac arrest. Officials say she is in stable condition in a local hospital.
“This to my knowledge is the first time that we've actually provided those life saving drugs to a victim of a cardiac arrest,” Spokesperson Sean Collins said.
And the Chitwood couple says most Pine Mountain Club residents agree that is a great return on their investment.
While fire crews were not able to save his life, it was also a firefighter-paramedic from the same station that was able to make contact with the 15-year-old boy who fell off a cliff last month near Pine Mountain Club.
