Heros

Heros

From Page A1

and was barely breathing,” said Baker, a junior at Madison County High School, “but within seconds she had no pulse and was no longer breathing. Travis began chest compressions while I was holding her down and feeling for a wrist pulse.”

“We put her on the ground on a flat surface to start CPR,” said Meehan a sophomore at Rappahannock County High School and a junior member of the Amissville Volunteer Fire and Rescue Squad. “I was doing vitals while Travis and Ronnie were doing CPR. I put my dress shirt under her neck to keep her airway open.”

The three continued CPR until the rescue squad arrived and began treatment. “I ran down and met the ambulance,” Meehan said. “The rescue squad didn’t bring the airways kit over to where the woman was, which I had always been trained to do, so I ran back down to the ambulance to find it. I also grabbed the backboard — the stretcher — and ran back.”

After further treatment by the rescue squad, the woman was carried to Roanoke Hospital, “Ronnie, Travis and I lifted her onto the stretcher ... and with the rescue squad holding the IV, we put her in the ambulance. The rescue squad guy shook our hands, thanked us, and then they were gone,” said Meehan. “Our job was done, but we were kind of down because we didn't know for sure if the lady would be okay. She had been dying right in front of us.”

“I felt like my heart dropped down to my knees (when the ambulance pulled away)” said Dodson. “I was really upset. I broke down and started crying and praying that this lady would be okay.”

“We had kept the woman stable until the squad showed up and administered more appropriate care for her situation. It really made me feel good to be able to help, knowing that 10 minutes earlier this woman was not living at all,” Baker said.

A junior member of the Madison Fire Department for just over a year, Baker said he has worked several accidents but this was the first time he had administered CPR. “I’ve