WESTBROOK – Westbrook City Councilor Paul Emery said he may owe his life to city firefighters, who helped him when he collapsed at an Amato’s Sandwich Shop last week.
“I want to thank them and also acknowledge the fine job they did,” Emery said Tuesday, nearly a week after the June 9 incident, in which he suffered a heart attack while waiting in line for sandwiches at the store at 120 Main St. “Who knows? They may have saved my life by doing their job instead of listening to the patient.”
He said he tried to persuade the city rescue workers who arrived at the scene – firefighters who also are paramedics and emergency medical technicians — that he was all right. But they insisted he needed help.
The incident occurred about 12:30 p.m “I wanted to get some of their delicious sandwiches,” Emery said. “Italians, of course.”
Emery, 68, the Ward 3 city councilor since January, had placed his order when he started feeling dizzy, and he remembers putting his hand out on the counter to steady himself.
“The next thing I know, I’m looking up at a nice gentleman bending over me and I could see legs all around me,” Emery said.
When rescue personnel arrived, they took him out to ambulance, where Emery, who said he had no clue previously that he had heart problems, tried to tell them he was fine.
But then he started having another dizzy spell, and
rescue workers hooked him up to a heart monitor. “They said, ‘Your heart stopped. It started again by itself, but it stopped,'” Emery said.
They rushed him to Maine Medical Center in Portland, and his heart continued to stop briefly many times on the way, Emery said.
“They were with me all the way to the trauma room,” Emery said of his rescuers. “They were great – warm and efficient.”
When he got to the hospital, a priest was summoned to give him last rites, Emery said. He said his heart stopped several times during the night, and doctors ended up installing a pacemaker in his heart the next day.
Emery was out of the hospital early this week and recovering from his ordeal.
“My wife’s got my feathers clipped all the way back to the wing,” he said.
He said he expects to be back attending City Council meetings “sometime soon, God willing.”
Emery is chairman of the council’s Facilities & Streets Committee, but was unable to attend the committee’s meeting Monday night. He said Tuesday that he is not allowed to drive through the end of this week.
However, at the start of Monday’s meeting, Councilor Michael Foley read a message from Emery in which
Emery expressed his gratitude to the fire department and rescue.
Emery also asked in his message that the names of his rescuers be read into the record to demonstrate his and his family’s gratitude for their help.
Emery identified the firefighters as Dan Svenson, who also is an emergency medical technician; Gary Wagner, an emergency medical technician and paramedic; Mark Theriault, an emergency medical technician; Shawn Theberge, an emergency medical technician and paramedic; and Jeff Dutil, an emergency medical technician.
On Tuesday, Emery added: “I really want to say how pleased and proud I was of the Westbrook firemen. They did a wonderful job. They’re the heroes of the story.”
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