"These people are the people that need the recognition, they’re the ones that do the job," said James Main. He choked up just a little as he thanked Pueblo first responders who saved his life.
Pueblo Firefighters and 9-1-1 dispatchers got to meet with Main at Parkview Hospital where he is recovering from heart failure and surgery.
Quick action and stubborn determination by emergency workers made a big difference in efforts that saved Main’s life. He was at the Elks lodge in downtown Pueblo playing pool and feeling just fine. With no warning he collapsed. It was heart failure.
A call to 9-1-1 was picked up and dispatched in just 20 seconds. It turns out the fire crew was already on the road and arrived at the scene in just over minute. They went to work administering medications and doing CPR. There were multiple times it appeared Main’s heart was done, but then they would detect some activity and continue working.
"Usually after 20 minutes we’ll stop CPR and that’s where things stop,” said Pueblo Fire Captain, Damion Pritts, “Pulse kept coming back, then they’d go away, then they’d come back."
The small signs of life motivated crews, who kept rotating in for 40 minutes until they got to the hospital.
The main family calls the emergency workers “heroes”. The crews counter they are “just doing our job.”
