Group of Chicago firefighters, EMTs honored for saving child’s life

CHICAGO — A group of firefighters and paramedics were honored Wednesday for their role in saving the life of a 13-month-old child.

The group being honored included two Chicago Fire Department paramedics and four EMTs who saved a life after receiving a call about a child in cardiac arrest earlier this year.

Thanks to their life-saving measures, the child was brought back to life and on Wednesday, they received Project ADAM’s Community Hero Awards for their heroic work.

When the fire department arrived on the scene that day, the child’s parents were already performing CPR on 13-month-old baby Arbora.

Crews quickly jumped into action and were able to get the child’s heart beating again. She was later taken to the hospital but is now back at home in good spirits.

Wednesday’s honorees included Chicago Fire Department Ambulance 74’s Patrick Papiez, Shlomo Starck as well as Truck 6 EMTs Casey Postilion, Zeko Durovic, Sergio Luna and Andrew Lewandowski.

Arbora parents said they are forever grateful for the life-saving work.

“Incredible job, but the entire team, you know, from the first responders to the nurses to, you know, to the people in the emergency room, to the ICU, the doctors. It was, for us, it was a shock as parents, but they see this kind of thing every day,” Arbora’ father said.

Project ADAM, is a national non-profit organization committed to saving lives through advocacy, education, preparedness and collaboration to prevent sudden cardiac death.

Project ADAM, was created in 1999 after a 17-year-old Wisconsin student, Adam Lemel, collapsed and died while playing basketball.