A nurse and three off-duty firefighters have received the Chandler Fire Department’s Citizens Award of Merit 19 for promptly responding to an emergency where a man had collapsed at his daughter’s middle-school commencement ceremony last May.
The award, honoring those who take lifesaving action to help a member of the community, was presented during the Chandler City Council meeting on Aug. 19.
The nurse and firefighters, two from the Phoenix Fire Department and one from Tempe Fire, were separately attending the eighth grade graduation ceremony at Kyrene del Pueblo Middle School last May when a visiting father suddenly collapsed.
Patrick Dugan, 65, was attending his daughter’s graduation when he suffered cardiac arrest and stopped breathing.
Phoenix Fire Captain Charlie Montano, Phoenix Firefighter Brian Geranen, Tempe Fire Captain Hans Silberschlag and Maureen Petrides, a nurse practitioner, addressed the situation and immediately began performing the new “hands only CPR” method of cardio pulmonary resuscitation.
Chandler Fire Captain Darrell Gibbons and crew of Engine 289 A-Shift revived Dugan a short time later, and he was transported to Chandler Regional Medical Center.
Firefighters later learned that Dugan’s wife had died two weeks prior to the graduation.
