Mayor Richard J. Berry recognized six Albuquerque Firefighters Friday who worked together to save the life a 14-year-old boy who had collapsed at school.
Mayor Richard J. Berry recognized six Albuquerque Firefighters Friday who worked together to save the life a 14-year-old boy who had collapsed at school.
Lieutenant Donald Gurule, Driver Nathaniel Meisner and Michael Mendel and Fire Fighters Duane Esquibel, Brennie McCoy and Mario Montoya received this week’s Friday’s Heroes Award. Each week Mayor Berry or Public Safety Director Darren White recognize at least one public safety employee who went above the call of duty.
“Each week it amazes me the stories we hear,” Mayor Berry said. “It wows us. But to our firefighters, police officers and dispatchers, it’s every day business.”
On Dec. 10, Rescue 9 and Engine 12 were dispatched to Manzano High School at 11:15a.m. after 14-year-old Nicholas Roldan collapsed. He was unconscious, with no pulse and not breathing. Before AFD’s arrival, Ms. Evans, a teacher at Manzano, started performing CPR with mouth to mouth ventilations in an attempt to revive the boy. An Automatic Electronic Defibrillator was also brought to the classroom and Roldan was defibrillated once.
The AFD units arrived minutes later and found Roldan laying flat on the floor in a classroom. He was still unconscious, pulse less and not breathing. Rescue 9 immediately secured Nicholas's airway and attached the monitor. Bystander's continued CPR until Engine 12 arrived. Epinephrine was administered and Roldan suddenly had a pulse rate of 130 beats per minute. Minutes later, Roldan was once again without a pulse. Albuquerque firefighters defibrillated him and got a strong pulse rate and a normal heart rhythm. Roldan was loaded on the gurney and was transported to UNM Hospital.
At the hospital, physicians implanted a defibrillator to automatically shock Roldan when it detects a cardiac arrhythmia. Days later the boy was released from UNM Hospital and was home for Christmas.
"Words can't express how grateful we are for the wonderful people that saved Nicholas' life,” said Roldan’s mother Pamela Gaskill. “After everything he experienced, to have no physical limitations or deficits is a miracle."
