Today, I met the people who saved my life.

I’ve been tweeting about my cardiac arrest since I woke up in the ICU and re-downloaded twitter ( @LGlaucomflecken deleted it for my own safety and concluded that if I could figure out how to get it back, I was safe to tweet again)

Now almost 3 months, hundreds of tweets and 1 electric bra later, I was finally able to meet the EMTs, firefighters, and call operators who responded that night and hear about their experience

I heard about how they had responded earlier that night to a house fire only to get called again a few hours later when my heart stopped beating.

I heard about how they encountered my locked back door without their tools to break it open, so the largest person on the team busted through it with a flying kick

I heard about the first team member who entered our bedroom where my wife was in her 9th minute of CPR and would later remark that the she was working so hard “her legs were flying off the bed with each compression”

I heard about the EMT who made eye contact with my 8 year old daughter, who was sitting up in bed, before quietly closing the door. I also heard about how he has thought about her every day since, hoping she was ok (she is btw )

I heard about how they transported my pale, ashen body down the stairs, intubated me, started an IV, and shocked me 6 times while wearing full PPE, including hoods that were fogging up.

I also heard about how often they don’t get closure in these situations, how often they bring patients to the hospital barely clinging to life with no idea what happens next. I heard about how much they carry these traumas with them.

And finally, I heard from the 911 operator, how in 12 years on the job, she has known of only 3 survivors of cardiac arrest, including me.

Thank you to the people who saved me and thank you to everybody out there who works in emergency services. What you do matters.