Greenville Road Warriors honor hometown heroes

GREENVILLE, S.C. —  They may be tough on the ice, but the Greenville Road Warriors know who’s just as tough outside the rink.

On January 5, the ECHL affiliate of the New York Rangers and the AHL’s Hartford Wolf Pack recognized a group of hometown heroes who showed how hard work and determination can really pay off.

In August of last year, the Duncan Chapel Fire District responded to an emergency medical call at the BP gas station bordering the fire district and the city of Travelers Rest. A man in his 50s was experiencing chest pains, but the situation was upgraded to a cardiac arrest event by the time Asst. Chief Russell Watson, Lt. Alan Hall, and firefighters Cameron Mason and Tom Porter arrived on the scene.

Upon their arrival, the patient was buckled in his car, non-responsive and with no pulse.

After removing the patient from the vehicle, Watson, Hall, Mason, and Porter rotated as a team and performed a number of life-saving measures, continuing to work as a Greenville County EMS unit arrived a short time later and assisted with resuscitation efforts.

After about 15 minutes, the first responders were able to regain a pulse, and the man was transported to Greenville Memorial Hospital, where he was kept in a medically-induced coma until his body was strong enough to begin healing on its own.

Largely due to the training and life-saving efforts that helped these first responders bring the patient back to life, the man was discharged from the hospital with no discernible neurological damage, according to district officials.

“No situation is identical. We never know what to expect from one call to the next, but we rely on constant training and call on past experiences to help us help those in our district who need it,” Asst. Chief Watson said.

Bill Addis, Chairman of the Duncan Chapel Fire District Commission and a firefighter himself added, “Everything we do in our District is done with the idea of saving lives and property of the people who live here, work here, or pass through here – either on our roadways or on the Swamp Rabbit Trail. Our personnel train for events like these. We know that people would rather not have to hear our sirens, but they know when they do, some of Greenville County’s most experienced firefighters and first responders will be taking care of them.”