Cardiac Arrest Survivor Distributes Lifesaving Award to Crew

Cardiac Arrest survivor Kenneth Wilkas was in attendance at our February 28, 2023 Board of Trustees Meeting for the presentation of the William Bonnar, Sr. Lifesaving Award to Officer Julio Oliva of the Orland Park Police Department; and Unit Commendation Awards to: Firefighters Christian Andrews and Jeff Anderson (Ambulance 2); Lieutenant Wally Rafacz, Engineer Jim Strzechowski and Firefighter Bryan Kluever (Engine 2); Lieutenant Jeff Ruchniewicz, Engineer Mark Reichert, and Firefighter Jacob McCleary (Truck 1).

On November 26, 2022 at 23:31 hours, OFPD received a call of a full-arrest/person down in the 15200 block of Royal Fox Hunt Road. Officer Julio Oliva arrived on scene and provided CPR until the arrival of EMS. CPR and advanced life support care was provided and the patient had a return pulse and was breathing. The patient was packaged, moved to the ambulance, and was transported to Northwestern Medicine Palos Hospital. All involved moved quickly and effectively to help successfully resuscitate the patient.

Chief Schofield spoke to the wonderful relationship between the Orland Park Police Department and OFPD working together. Many times the police are the first on the scene and are able to perform life-saving actions using an AED. The Chief also mentioned OFPD's very high cardiac save rate and that is is because of the training received and numbers of paramedics on a call that helps the patient survive.

Mr. Wilkas spoke of his gratitude to all the men on the call and he assisted our EMS Coordinator Lieutenant Josh Girdick in distributing the awards.