Tragedy averted by quick-thinking friends
When their friend had a grand mal seizure at the bottom of the Niagara Gorge last Sunday, three teens acted quickly to help save his life.
Sixteen-year-old David Rochat was on his way down into the gorge for a fishing trip with his friends. The group had nearly reached the bottom when Rochat suffered a seizure after suddenly falling over.
Luckily for Rochat, his friends Ethan Ward, 16, Trevor Mackenzie, 17, and Justin Radojkovich, 19 came to his aid although at first they weren’t sure of what happened.
“At first when he dropped we thought he was playing it cool. He slipped and started looking up into the air, not looking at anything particular,” said Mackenzie. “He has a really joking personality.”
Radojkovic was the first to notice he wasn’t joking, at which point he ran to him and laid him down.
“His whole face and ears were blue,” said Radojkovic.
Although faced with weak cellphone service and a difficult hike to the top, they didn’t hesitate to address what was happening — they were aware an earlier seizure had been serious enough to send Rochat to hospital.
Radojkovic was the only one with cellphone service and called 911. He and Mackenzie ran to the top of the gorge to meet paramedics, while Ward stayed with him.
“It was pretty upsetting. We all ran to see if he was OK,” said Ward, who was level C first-aid trained for his job at WildPlay Niagara.
He said Rochat started throwing up, so he rolled him onto his side and made sure he could breathe while the others got help.
The paramedics arrived quickly, all three teens said. Radojkovic stayed on the phone with 911 until they arrived. The phone call lasted 13 minutes.
“In the time it took me to run from the bottom to the top as fast as I could, they (paramedics) were already there,” said Mackenzie.
Rochat’s mother, Lou-Anne Rochat, believes the three teens saved her son’s life.
She says she would like to see a higher level of first-aid training in high schools.
She fears what would have happened if the boys had not been prepared to deal with that kind of situation.
Three of the four boys attend A.N. Myer Secondary School in Niagara Falls, while Radojkovic has graduated and plans to pursue a post-secondary education in September.