MANATEE COUNTY – Staff and commissioners at West Manatee Fire Rescue are celebrating 10 lives saved as they presented Phoenix Awards and a Civilian Service Award.
The district bestows Phoenix Awards on staff members who respond to an emergency where the patient is in cardiac arrest and that patient not only has a pulse and is breathing again when transferred to a medical facility but also is able to recover from the incident. Over a one-year period, WMFR staff had 10 of those incidents allowing for the patients to successfully recover and leave the hospital, including one where a private citizen responded before first responders could get to the scene, helping to save one man’s life after a boat fell on him.
The recipients of the Phoenix Awards were firefighter/medic Jerrod Apple with two awards, firefighter/medic John Balzer, firefighter Nathan Bergbom, firefighter William Bowen, firefighter/medic Casey Fischbach, firefighter Matthew French with two awards, firefighter/medic Gabriel Gonzalez with two awards, firefighter Aston Jasinski, firefighter Gavin Johnston, firefighter Sarah Joseph, firefighter/medic Clayton Lease, Capt. James Leigh, firefighter Dane Miller, firefighter/medic David Miller, firefighter Zackary Misiura, firefighter Chris O’Kelley, firefighter Max Pollock, firefighter/medic Aaron Reese, firefighter Tyler Snyder, Lt. Daniel Tackett, firefighter Jeffrey Taylor with two awards, and firefighter/medic William Thomas.
Private citizen Steve Gulash received the district’s Civilian Service Award after jumping into a canal to rescue Ryan Cahill, who was struck by a falling boat when a cable on a boat lift snapped.
“The first week in May, I’m standing on a lift around a boat, up in the air, helping my father-in-law get it ready for hurricane season,” Cahill recalled. “We’re up about 8 feet above the water and the cable snapped. A 10,000-pound boat hit me and broke my arm, broke my knee, broke both my shoulder blades, 50 stitches in my head and four vertebrates. This was just four months ago.”
The Kalamazoo, Michigan resident said the Sept. 10 meeting was the first time that he met the man who saved his life after he fell in the water.
Cahill said that the doctors could not believe that he recovered. He said his family was called to come and say their goodbyes but after several days on a ventilator in the intensive care unit, he began to improve and was able to go home and has made a full recovery from his injuries.
“The impact that you made on my family, my kids, everybody that knows me, I’m forever connected with you going forward and so will they be and thank God for that and thank God for you. Thank you,” Cahill said to Gulash, presenting the award to the man who saw him go in the water and reacted quickly enough to save his life. Firefighters said that when they arrived, Gulash was holding Cahill above the water, and it took six people to pull him out of the canal due to the depth of the water to the height of the seawall.
Cahill said his response was a reaction to all his training as a coach and in law enforcement. He said he felt honored to receive the award among firefighters who stepped up every day to help save lives. “You guys are awesome,” he said.
