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Presentation of the Fire Department's Award for Exemplary Action to Farmers Branch resident Carolyn Halliburton.
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BACKGROUND:
On July 29th at 6:55 p.m. the Farmers Branch 911 Public Safety Answering Point received a telephone call requesting help for a medical emergency. Dispatchers Mollie Kim and Sharon Atkins processed the call and notified Fire Station #1 of the emergency. Engine 131 staffed by Lieutenant/Paramedic Jonathon Castro, Driver/Paramedic Ron Morrison and Firefighter Caleb Swaney along with Medic-131 staffed by Firefighter/Paramedic Lucas Bagley and Firefighter/Paramedic Daniel Latimer responded to the call with a travel time of 2 minutes and 54 seconds.
Upon arrival, Carolyn Halliburton was found performing hands-only CPR on her next door neighbor, Mr. Donald Rodriguez. Mrs. Halliburton had completed the second step in the American Heart Association's four-step Chain of Survival by performing CPR prior to the arrival of trained first responders. Her actions gave Farmers Branch Paramedics a head start in their effort to successfully resuscitate Mr. Rodriquez.
Paramedics began advanced life support care following our cardiac arrest protocol. The patient was resuscitated en-route to Las Colinas Medical Center. This change in patient condition allowed Paramedics to begin the post cardiac arrest hypothermal protocol. Paramedics called a code STEMI during the transport resulting in the patient being moved directly to the Las Colinas Medical Center CATH lab (the forth step in the Chain of Survival). Door to balloon time was 79 minutes. Mr. Rodriquez was discharged from the hospital four days later with no complications.
Because of the courageous actions taken by Mrs. Halliburton, her neighbor Donald Rodriquez is alive today.
ATTACHMENTS:
- Award of Exemplary Action to Carolyn Halliburton