Cardiac Arrest Victim Thanks Chicago Firefighters

When the Chicago Fire Department gets a call for CPR in progress, the results aren’t always happy ones, Capt. John Czerwionka said.

But firefighters stationed with Engine 56 on Chicago’s North Side saw the happy results Sunday of their life-saving efforts last month – a healthy Maureen Boll of Mount Prospect bearing gifts and gratitude for the men who helped her survive a cardiac arrest Nov. 10.

“I need to say thank you,” Boll said after she and her family delivered pies and meat from Omaha Steaks to the fire house in the 2200 block of West Barry.

It all happened at her son Bobby’s home near Western and Belmont, on his 30th birthday. Boll said she planned to help babysit her grandson, Emmett, while his parents went out. Boll’s husband, Tim, and her mother, Marilyn James, had also come along.

Soon after she arrived, Boll said she felt like she was going to faint. Emmett was in her arms, she said, and so she handed the 7-month-old to her mother.

“She just went right down,” James said. “I mean, there was just no warning.”

Boll’s husband and daughter-in-law, Erin, began trying to do CPR while her son called paramedics.

“They came so quick,” James said. “It was unbelievable. They were there in two minutes.”

Firefighter/EMTs George Olifer, William Mott and John Misiewicz and Engineer Peter Czerwionka were all on hand to help revive Boll, who wasn’t breathing. They had to shock her twice with a defibrillator and later again in an ambulance.

“After the second shock, I checked and she started breathing again,” Olifer said. “Man, it was amazing.”

They took her to a nearby hospital, where she said she woke up 12 hours later.

“I’m so grateful to be here,” Boll said.