Metro Paramedics, Elmhurst Fire Dept. Awarded “Run of the Year”

Metro Paramedics, Elmhurst Fire Dept. Awarded "Run of the Year"

Gina Knight and Metro Paramedics

Metro Paramedics and the Elmhurst Fire Department were recently awarded the “Run of the Year” by Elmhurst Hospital.

Gina Knight, a 20-year veteran with Metro Paramedics, described the award-winning run.

“My partner and I just happened to be at St Charles and the Prairie path when bystanders called in and reported a driver slumped over the wheel with the car still in motion. This was just three or four blocks away from us,” Knight said.

Knight and the crew arrived at the scene and saw the patient’s SUV had driven up a lawn. They placed the car in park and then turned off the engine. Then they quickly began to assess the patient.

“It was a full arrest. The patient had been driving home when he went into sudden cardiac arrest. Once we confirmed full arrest we updated dispatch that we were working an arrest,” Knight said.

Metro Paramedics and Elmhurst Fire Department have had excellent success with the Lucas device, a mechanical CPR device that performs compressions and frees up medics to further assess the patient and enact other interventions. Knight was able to use the Lucas device for the first time on this call.

“We had just started field testing the Lucas device and other crews had had an opportunity to use the device and raved about it. This was my first opportunity to use it on a patient,” Knight said.

“After we had the patient out of the car and on the ground, I started compressions and my partner ran and grabbed the monitor and Lucas. As John (Strykowski) was setting up the Lucas I placed the patient on the monitor and provided one shock. Then we placed the Lucas device on the patient and it was quick and easy. It freed us up from doing compressions and we were able to do other interventions while the engine and truck crew arrived. We had a pulse back before we left the scene.”

Watch Knight and the rest of the Elmhurst Fire Department receive their award.

Oddly enough, the crew found out later that the patient had been a POC (Paid On-Call) firefighter for the Elmhurst Fire Department before those positions were phased out.

“He and his family were able to join us for the “Run of the Month” luncheon and some of the old-timers got to visit and reminisce about the old days,” Knight said.

Knight has been working for Metro Paramedics for the entirety of her career, all of it with the Elmhurst Fire Department.

“Working for Metro has been great. I did my field time at EFD while I was in the Good Samaritan Paramedic Program, and when I was done Metro offered me a job. They have also helped pay for any additional training I have wanted to take.”

Congratulations to Knight, the entire Metro Paramedics team, and the Elmhurst Fire Department for winning the prestigious “Run of the Year” award.

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