Life saved by ambulance crew

Thursday, May 17, 2018

A 911 call in October of 2015, dispatched emergency personnel from the Pea Ridge Fire-EMS Department to meet a private vehicle at the intersection of It'll Do Road and Slack Street (Arkansas Highway 72).

"I remember that day," Justin Young, emergency medical technician with the Pea Ridge Ambulance Department, said Monday, explaining that he'd just gotten off work in Bentonville and was headed home to Pea Ridge when he heard the call and then saw the ambulance.

He pulled over to help and drove the ambulance to the hospital while the paramedic worked on the patient.

The patient, Martha Seward, 66, of Idaho was in Pea Ridge visiting her son, Jonathan Luckey, and his family when she started feeling poorly, then fell down. The next few hours were a blur.

Luckey put his mother in the vehicle and headed to the hospital, calling 911 as he went. He pulled over in the lot at the end of It'll Do Road and Slack Street where he met the ambulance.

"I've been on here (Pea Ridge Fire-EMS Dept.) for three years. That's the second code that I know that anybody survived," Young said. "I didn't know she survived until a coupe of months ago."

"It's amazing! It's what makes this job the best job in the world -- knowing you were there on the worst day and they made it through. Especially when, years later, they want to tell you 'thank you.'

"It's very rewarding," Young said. Young has lived in Pea Ridge for about seven years, he said and has been an EMT since 2012. He said he spent two to three years overseas as a combat medic with the Army and that's what influenced his desire to become an EMT.

Seward said she was active and healthy -- hosting a kids Bible Club, providing refreshments, teaching a Sunday school class and serving as missionary president at her church. "Life was good."

She said she had planned the trip to Pea Ridge to see her son. She said she had recently been to the doctor and had injections in her back. Returning from that appointment in Idaho, she began to feel badly and saw blackbirds flying over her from a nearby wheat field. She said she believed that was a sign from God referencing Isaiah 31:5 that God would protect her.

She said the Bible verse is: "Like birds hovering, so the LORD of hosts will protect Jerusalem; he will protect and deliver it; he will spare and rescue it." She interpreted that meant God was protecting her and later realized that was a foreshadowing of the event that would happen in Pea Ridge.

Seward said she was initially scared and told her son she "wasn't going to make it."

"They saved my life," she said, referring to the ambulance crew. Working that day were Bob White, paramedic; Jamie Baggett, fire chief; Young and Sarah Senty, EMTs.

"I'll be eternally grateful to those who saved my life. If they hadn't been here just when I needed it, I wouldn't have seen my grandsons lie they are now.

"They are an asset to the community," she said, tearfully. "It is a blessing to know that there is someone here we can cal on in time of need. I think of them all during the year and I thank God they were here."

She said she had a heart attack and was told by the doctor that she lost about 40 percent of her heart. She said she was revived three times in the ambulance and again by the doctor before he performed surgery on her. She said the doctor said she was a miracle.

Seward has three children and six grandchildren as well as a stepdaughter and three step grandchildren, she said.

"I want everybody to know, this place is important," she said referring to the Fire Department. "This fire station is very important to the community and it's a wonderful place to work and I'm very glad they were here when I needed them."

Community on 05/17/2018