Hinsdale Fire Fighters Honored for 2010 Infant Revival

Four Hinsdale fire fighters are being honored Thursday at Advocate Good Samaritan Hospital in Downers Grove for their response to an April 2010 emergency call that saved the life of a 2-month-old infant.

Fire fighters/paramedics Doug Niemeyer, Dan Majewski, Tom Sener and Lt. Jon Carlson are the first-runner-up recipients of the Joseph Hartmann Award of Excellence, which according to the , is one of the highest honors for EMS professionals.

The honor is being given for the fire fighters’ April 26, 2010, response to a 911 call reporting an infant not breathing. According to a fire department release, the 2-month-old had no pulse when the responders arrived.

“The crews took over CPR, ventilated to the patient, started advanced life support, which included an IO access line, cardiac monitoring and medications, and delivered the patient to Hinsdale Hospital within several minutes,” the release read. “While in route to the hospital, the patient regained a pulse, had a blood pressure and started to stabilize.”

Fire fighter/paramedic Steve Tullis, the Hinsdale Fire Department’s public information officer, said calls dealing with young children aren’t uncommon.

“It happens more than it should,” Tullis said. “There are calls like that quite often and they’re the calls that stay with you the longest in terms of emotional stress.”

Tullis said several fire fighters in the department have young kids of their own.

“When you go on a call in which you have children the same age as the children who are patients, there’s a tremendous amount of emotional stress,” Tullis said. “You’re fighting for the life of that child like it was your own child.”

Honorees were selected from numerous 2010 emergency calls submitted to the Good Samaritan EMS Coordinators by area fire departments. 

Tullis said the first-runner-up award is something Hinsdale fire fighters have not received in at least six years. The Hartmann awards have been given out every year since 1984.

Thursday’s award is being presented just over a month after Tullis and two other Hinsdale fire fighters were given a STEMI award from Hinsdale Adventist Hospital.

Tullis, Captain Rick Ronovsky, and fire fighter/paramedic Jim Nichols were honored on April 12 for their identification of, and swift response to, a severe heart attack known as a ST-segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (STEMI) earlier this year.

That particular patient, Tullis said, was very young, and like many heart attack victims, was at first in denial.

“Part of the battle is not only recognizing [the heart attack], but convincing  someone, ‘You gotta check this out,’” Tullis said. “If we didn’t move very, very quickly the outcome would have been very different.”

At Wednesday night’s Board of Trustees meeting, Village President Thomas Cauley made mention of the two awards.

“My congratulations to the entire fire department for the hard work they always do,” Cauley said. “I continuously receive compliments for our fire fighting staff and paramedics from residents.”

Tullis said the awards are nice, but it's the successful outcomes of the calls that makes the responders’ constant training worthwhile.

“This is why we do that,” he said.

Editor's note: Also on Patch today is that took place Tuesday to demonstrate the importance of indoor sprinkler systems.