Heart-attack survivor, 15, meets his saviours
A boy who suffered a near-fatal heart attack while playing basketball a year ago has been reunited with the St John Ambulance workers who saved his life.
Jarrod Church had an emotional meeting yesterday with paramedics Michelle Maihi and Monique Gore who restarted Jarrod’s heart on the side of a basketball court in Papakura in August last year.
The pair were touched to learn Jarrod, his mother Kelly Church and brother Jason Ahuriri wanted to meet them.
“We were really humbled. Helping people is why we do the job,” Maihi said.
“What we do is not heroic in any way, we just do the best we can and it’s great to have a good outcome like this.”
In their years of service with St John neither Maihi or Gore had ever been reunited with a patient.
The pair gave Jarrod a bone carving from a Papakura carver “for protection” and were eager to hearabout Jarrod’s recovery.
“It is really special because we don’t often know what happens once we hand over the care to the hospital,” Gore said.
The pair sat down with Jarrod and his family, looked at photos of his recovery and recalled the day for Jarrod.
Maihi and Gore had just finished a callout nearby when they got the urgent cardiac arrest code alert.
“We saw the code purple pop up and then the age — 15 — and we said ‘Is this even real?’ It’s really unusual for such a young person to go into cardiac arrest,” Maihi said.
“We got there and worked really quickly to establish that he had gone into cardiac arrest.”
It was estimated Jarrod’s heart had stopped, and his brain starved of oxygen, for
Hbetween minutes.
His mother Kelly was later told an undiagnosed heart condition triggered the cardiac arrest in her otherwise healthy son.
His left artery had lifted away from the right and become compressed, restricting blood flow and causing the heart attack.
When the paramedics had Jarrod’s heart beating again he crashed again and needed a shot of adrenalin.
He was in a coma, had to learn to walk and talk again and has had a year of six and eight rehabilitation with the Acquired Head Injury clinic in Ranui and the Wilson Home in Takapuna.
Jarrod met Boy and Pork Pie actor James Rolleston while at the Ranui head injury clinic and was invited to attend a training day with basketball star Steven Adams.
Despite the odds Jarrod is doing well and has just returned to Papakura High School part time. His older brother Jason Ahuriri has been employed as a teacher aide.
Jarrod is back playing basketball at interval with his friends, enjoying PE and art and slowly getting back to normality.
Jarrod said he was pleased to meet “the people who saved my life” and brother Jason said it was an important part of the family’s healing process. “We are just so thankful for what they were able to do for Jarrod. They all do such an amazing job and it has been really nice to meet them so they know that.”
St John district operations manager Doug Gallagher said the number of frontline staff who were reunited with their patients was small. “Our ambulance officers are always really grateful and honoured.”