Red Cross honors selfless actions of 34 in Snohomish County
Published 11:20 pm Monday, December 8, 2008
Even now, nearly four months later, Mary Shoop still can’t explain the feeling of unease that swept over her.
She had accompanied her daughter, Norma McCormick, to a doctor’s appointment earlier in the day, Aug. 13. About two hours after dropping off McCormick at her home in Snohomish, “I kept having this funny feeling something was wrong,” Shoop said.
She called one of McCormick’s daughters at work and asked her to check on her mom.
When she and her girlfriend, Brandy Kole, arrived at McCormick’s home, they found she wasn’t breathing.
Kole began resuscitation on McCormick and was soon assisted by Sgt. Jeff Shelton of the Snohomish Police Department. He’d heard the fire department being summoned to the address while he was on patrol, and went to help.
When Shelton arrived, McCormick was pale, her skin had a bluish tinge and her body was cold. “I personally believe that she was dead, and if not dead, close to it,” Shelton said.
Shelton said he and Kole continued CPR until an aid car arrived about four minutes later.
“It was crazy, the emotional part,” Kole said. “I was holding her, begging her not to go.”
For their actions in helping revive McCormick, Kole and Shelton are being honored today with Real Hero awards by the Snohomish County Chapter of the American Red Cross.
The annual awards were established to acknowledge selfless actions taken to help others, often when lives are potentially endangered. Kole and Shelton are two of 34 people selected for the awards this year. The 13th annual awards breakfast was this morning at the Comcast Arena in Everett.
McCormick, 43, who works as a lab technician at The Everett Clinic, said she was told her problems were caused by an extremely rare reaction to prescription medications.
McCormick had been hospitalized the night before with pain that was suspected to have been caused by kidney stones, Shoop said.
To help get a firmer diagnosis on what was causing the problems, McCormick had an magnetic resonance imaging test the next day.
Shoop said her daughter had been prescribed pain medications while in the hospital and a sedative prior to undergoing the MRI scan.
But she seemed fine, if fatigued, as she left the medical appointment. Her mom dropped her off at her home and kissed her goodbye.
McCormick said she remembers very little of that day, but does have a memory of lying in the ambulance as she was being rushed to the hospital.
An avid motorcycle rider, she wondered: “Did I crash my bike?”
Once she arrived at the hospital, an emergency room doctor asked if she had meant to hurt herself.
“Are you kidding?” McCormick responded. “I just bought a Harley.”
Here are the stories of other winners of this year’s Real Hero award winners:
Steve Johnson and Angel Pedrego
On May 18, Steve Johnson and his wife were in downtown Snohomish to take in the annual motorcycle show. While taking a break to eat a sandwich, he gazed out at the nearby Snohomish River. First he saw some debris float by. Then he heard a woman screaming for help after her boat capsized.
He ran from behind a building, down a steep, rocky bank and jumped down from a concrete wall.
Johnson, 51, who was a member of his high school swim team, quickly stripped down to his skivvies before diving into the river.
Another man, Angel Pedrego, 19, of Kirkland, also jumped in to help.
Johnson reached out his hand to the woman as he approached. She told him she was cold and scared.
“I’m not going to leave you,” Johnson told her, and began gently swimming a side stroke toward the bank.
One police officer held out a branch to try to help him, but Johnson decided to float a little farther downstream where it would be easier to pull her to dry land.
By the time Johnson and the woman walked onto the bank, about 100 onlookers had gathered nearby. While they responded with cheers and applause, Johnson said he felt a little embarrassed. “I was standing there in my underwear,” he said, chuckling.
“I had six guys come up and say ‘thank you,’ guys who, if they had been there, probably would have done the same thing.”
Abraham Makonnen and Patrick Bennett
Abraham Makonnen walked outside his apartment building on July 24 to empty his garbage. He heard a crackle and looked up to see flames shooting out of a window.
He ran inside, called 911, and knocked on the door of a neighbor, Patrick Bennett, to get help alerting others to the fire.
They banged on the apartment door where they suspected the fire had begun. Finally, they were able to awaken the woman who lived there.
Her power had been turned off for not paying her bill, said Marybeth O’Leary, Lynnwood Fire Department spokeswoman. The woman was using candles to provide light in her apartment.
Makonnen and Bennett helped the woman from the apartment, and, armed with fire extinguishers, put out the blaze. “The two of them saved her life,” O’Leary said.
Paula Drake
Paula Drake of Mukilteo this past summer created a two-week class for teens on safety and disaster preparedness. Drake, who is director of emergency medical services at Evergreen Speedway, volunteers with the Mukilteo Fire Department.
Dennis and Linda Larsen
Driving along I-90 a little after 1 a.m. on Sept. 19, Dennis Larsen admits that when he saw a man who ran out of the dark frantically waving his arms, he thought twice before stopping.
“I thought it was a pretty good setup for a carjacking,” he said. Nevertheless, he pulled over and encountered a man who said his mother was slumped over in the car.
Larsen said the woman had no pulse, but was still warm. He laid her on the ground and started chest compressions to try to revive her while his wife called 911.
About five minutes later, police officers and emergency medical technicians arrived.
The Larsens, who live in Lake Stevens, are credited with saving the woman’s life.
“Had we not stopped, certainly she would not have survived,” Dennis Larsen said.
Alex Nguyen, Justin Glanville, Jessica Anthony, Derek Bride, Tyler Elliot and Doug Clapper
Five students are credited with saving Gatlena Lat on Jan. 15 when his car slid on a patch of ice and overturned, leaving him submerged in a ditch on Maple Road in Lynnwood.
Lynnwood High School students Alex Nguyen, Justin Glanville, Jessica Anthony, Derek Bride and Tyler Elliot helped save Lat, assisted by Lynnwood resident Doug Clapper.
Tom Nelson, Kozi Colberg, Gene Smith, Chris Tupin and Mitch Sauer
On Sept. 5, Tom Nelson had just walked onto the football field at Lake Stevens High School when he saw Kyle Bigham, the team’s coach, collapse.
Lucky that Nelson, a volunteer coach and a Seattle firefighter, was nearby.
Bigham had stopped breathing, Nelson said, but still had a pulse. He began resuscitation on Bigham. Chris Turpin, Kozi Colberg, Gene Smith and Mitch Sauer also helped.
Bigham was later diagnosed with fibrillation, or a quavering of the heart that impedes a strong heartbeat.
Bigham, 33, recovered so quickly he was back coaching within three weeks, Nelson said.
Geoff Aldcroft, Toby Black and Ted Measor
On Sept. 11, after fishing for salmon with a friend near Edmonds and having no luck, Ted Measor returned to the 10th Street Marina in Everett. He saw something floating in the water and quickly determined it was a body. Geoff Aldcroft of Lake Stevens spotted what looked like a lifeless body about the same time. Aldcroft and Measor, assisted by Toby Black, who works for the state Department of Fish and Wildlife and happened to be nearby, pulled the woman from the water. Black started chest compressions until aid crews arrived.
Don Loen, Christopher Marino and Ryan Boyer
About 11 a.m. on July 27, Sgt. Don Loen of the Snohomish Police Department was given the description of a car driven by a man who might be suicidal. Finding the car in a park, he called for help from Christopher Marino and Ryan Boyer. They spotted a man who appeared to be sleeping on a riverbank, said Cmdr. George Perillo. When they walked up to him, he tried to run and jump off a cliff overlooking the Pilchuck River. He was grabbed by Boyer, who looked as if they might be dragged over the cliff when Marino grabbed Boyer and the man and pushed them safely to the side.
This is the second time Loen has won the award, Perillo said. In 1999, he was honored for helping to pull a man out of a fire.
Angela Ramirez, Tracy Melton, Terri Virdell, Jamie Miller, Dawn Taylor, Justin Bradley, Art Cooper, Jim Venturo
They became known as “the hero moms” after they smashed windows to reach fire extinguishers at Lakewood Elementary School and help extinguish flames. But that would leave out the actions of three men who also helped out on July 24: Art Cooper, Jim Venturo and Justin Bradley. Their actions are credited with helping save the school from exploding into flames.
Reporter Sharon Salyer: 425-339-3486 or salyer@heraldnet.com.
