Lifesavers honored for quick response
Chris Hunt and Brian Mowrey were having breakfast at the Pea Ridge Cafe the morning of Thursday, Jan. 23.
Medical personnel on duty for the Pea Ridge Volunteer Fire-EMS Department, the two men noticed another customer in distress as he collapsed to the ground.
Gary Price was having breakfast with his family and said he didn’t have any pain.
“I didn’t have any pains,” Price said.
“The only thing that showed up that I thought was odd was that I got light-headed,” he said. “I got up, walked outside, cooled off, leaning against the car.
“Waitress came out and give me a hard time. I give it back. I went back inside and sat down and said ‘I’m fine now,’” he said. “Next thing I know, I’m on the floor with paramedics on top of me.”
Mowrey, a paramedic, and Hunt, an emergency medical technician, immediately began emergency medical procedures, put Price in the ambulance and took him to the hospital where he underwent surgery for thirddegree heart blockage.
Ambulance director Jared Powell, making the presentation at the City Council meeting, said the initial attack happened at 9:13 a.m. and Price received the first balloon at 10:02 a.m.
“The gold standard is 90 minutes,” Powell said, referring to the optimum time to receive treatment after a heart attack. “It was 47 minutes from the beginning to the first balloon.”
“We’re proud to have Mr. Price with us tonight,” Powell said, commending Hunt and Mowrey for their quick and professional response.
“I’m just glad God and these guys were there,” Linda Price, Gary’s mother, said.
“Top it all off, I’d lost my husband three months before,” she said. “I kept yelling ‘you can’t die on me!’”