On May 13, 2016, Argonne firefighters and paramedics Andrew Hughes and Michael Pemble (both FMS) were presented with Loyola’s Emergency Medical Services (EMS) Lifesaving Award at the university’s EMS Week breakfast in recognition of their professional actions in saving a man’s life.
Responding to an emergency call from the Tri-State Fire Protection District, Hughes and Pemble were dispatched to a nearby banquet hall where a man had collapsed. A bystander was performing CPR, which was halted as Hughes and Pemble checked for a carotid pulse. Finding no pulse and with the heart monitor displaying a ventricular fibrillation (v-fib), they shocked the patient and restored his carotid pulse and heart rhythm. The patient was moved to the ambulance where advanced life support was further rendered, but once again the patient reverted to v-fib with no carotid pulse. Hughes and Pemble then shocked the patient a second time to regain a pulse and heart rhythm. As the patient was transported to Bolingbrook Hospital, he became responsive to verbal stimuli. Before Hughes and Pemble left the hospital room, the patient was talking to the doctor.
Left to right: Loyola EMS Project Medical Director, Dr. Mark Cichon; Argonne Firefighter/Paramedic Andrew Hughes (FMS); Argonne Firefighter/Paramedic Michael Pemble (FMS); and Loyola EMS System Coordinator Christine Chaput.