May 31--David Emerson's win May 20 was better than playing a lottery. He attributes his good fortune to employees of Yellow Ambulance, Owensboro firefighters and the medical staff of Owensboro Health Regional Hospital.
On Thursday morning, paramedic Danny Yonts of Greenville and Matt Kamuf of Owensboro gathered in Emerson's kitchen for a reunion.
"I wanted to thank them for what they did for me," Emerson said. "Today is my 54th wedding anniversary, and I wouldn't be here if not for them."
Emerson, his wife and grandson were spreading mulch that day in his front yard when he halted his work and sat down on the front porch. His wife, Mary Ruth, asked him if he wasn't feeling well. He told her his chest hurt "all over."
She immediately called 911, and within several minutes, there was an ambulance and firetruck at their front door. "They were here in no time," Mary Ruth Emerson said. "Never saw four men so professional."
Emerson, 73, went into cardiac arrest when Yonts and Kamuf put him in the ambulance.
"When they closed the door, the lights went out, and I didn't wake up until 10 that night," Emerson said.
What happened in the ambulance before Emerson arrived at the hospital is what saved his life.
"They shocked me seven times," Emerson said.
Yonts said after each shock from a defibrillator, Emerson's pulse would come back briefly, but after the seventh charge, he stabilized.
"We didn't do anything anyone else (Yellow Ambulance paramedic or EMT) wouldn't have done," Yonts said. "It just wasn't his time."
Emerson also thinks divine providence had a hand in his recovery.
In 37 years, Yonts said he's only seen three people survive after a situation similar to Emerson's.
"It's abnormal for someone to come back like that," Yonts said. "The Lord was with him that day."
Dinah Chapman, public events coordinator at Yellow Ambulance, said the medical
team rarely gets feedback from patients and that it was nice that Emerson wanted to meet the men who helped save his life.
"Few walk out of the hospital who were in his (Emerson) shape," said Jamie Hardin, director of Yellow Ambulance.
"The right thing was done at the right moment, according to the reports I've read," on Emerson, Hardin said. "They (Yonts and Kamuf) didn't give up," he said.
Firefighters Josh Lashbrook and Luke Cecil also contributed to Emerson's survival. One firefighter assisted in the ambulance, and the other drove the vehicle to the hospital with Mary Ruth Emerson in the front seat with him.
"We often work with the fire department. It's good to have extra sets of hands," Yonts said.
Kamuf and Yonts don't work together often, but Yonts was glad Kamuf was with him on that day. "Matt knows his stuff," Yonts said.
Since Emerson's heart attack, he's had some blockage taken care of. "I'm perfectly normal, but that's questionable," Emerson said with a grin.
The only residual effect is a sore chest "on the inside," Emerson said. "It it a good hurt, though. Without them, I wouldn't be feeling anything at all."
Suzi Bartholomy, 691-7293, sbartholomy@messenger-inquirer.com
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