Family meets first responders who helped save child’s life

This post was provided by News Now Warsaw

By David Slone
Times-Union

WARSAW — Forty-five seconds.

That’s how quickly Josiphine Johnson’s dad, Trey, was able to begin giving her CPR after calling 911 thanks to the guidance from Kosciusko County Dispatcher Nick Carpenter.

On Tuesday at the Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office, the Johnson family got to meet Carpenter and the other emergency service personnel involved in the then-8-week-old’s medical incident at around 6:30 p.m. Jan. 23.

Gathered together in the KCSO training room, Sheriff Jim Smith said, “A lot of people don’t realize when you have something like this, the impact it can have on first responders.”

After handling one incident, first responders often have to move on to the next one.

“I can think back to several in my career that (I) think about quite a bit. I’ve got to think that all these folks that were involved in this situation that it’s a lot of the same for them, especially when it’s a little one,” Smith said, noting that the first responders were going to get as much out of meeting the family as the family was in meeting the first responders.

“From my end, I couldn’t be more proud of our dispatchers when it all started. Nick’s done an absolute remarkable job, and I know he’ll probably tell you that it was just another day at work and he was doing what he was supposed to do and what was expected of him, but we want to recognize those things because it’s pretty darn remarkable. I couldn’t be more proud of you. I’m so glad you’re a part of us, and you’re probably going to mean more to this family for years to come than you could ever imagine,” Smith said.

While Carpenter, who has been a dispatcher for 14 months, was “just doing his job,” Smith said Carpenter made a difference.

Smith praised Dispatch Director Amanda See and her team for training Carpenter “because that doesn’t happen without the calmness and steadiness to be able to get you through what you needed to in time.”

He reiterated how proud he was of everyone for the work Carpenter, the police officers, EMS and firefighters did that night.

“Yeah, it’s your job, but I don’t think there’s anyone in here that will tell you they just forgot about it. You think about these for a while afterward,” Smith stated.

Vicki Johnson, Josiphine’s grandmother, added, “Definitely hats off to everybody because it is, like he said, your job, but to us, you did way more than your job. You know you actually saved her. So thank you. And it’s not something you forget.”

A former EMT herself, Vicki said she could tell them about her first call.

“Some things just never go away. You remember them all. Hats off to everybody,” she said.
Recalling that night, Trey said, “So, basically, it was on a Thursday night. I was feeding her, she was hungry. She was taking her bottle. She normally has her food running down the side of her mouth. I ended up grabbing a burp rag and wiping up the spit-up, and she started fussing, which she normally does, but she kind of took this one a little bit above and beyond.”

Mucus began coming out of her nose and she took in a gasp of air. Josiphine began choking and turned pale white. She went unconscious.

“I checked the pulse, no pulse. And then that’s when I called 911,” Trey recalled. Carpenter walked Trey through CPR for about six minutes until the EMS arrived. It felt a lot longer than six minutes to him.

Carpenter recalled, “So they called and said my daughter’s not breathing.” While Carpenter began explaining how to do CPR, his partner alerted the first responders on what was going on and where to go. “I found out how old she was, I got upset. I tried to keep my calm and everything, but it was rough for me.”

Carpenter didn’t find out what ended up happening to Josiphine for some time. When he eventually found out Josiphine went home from the hospital and she was fine, he couldn’t have been happier.

“I think it’s important, too, to note that within 45 seconds, CPR was underway, which is pretty darn remarkable,” Smith said. “Obviously, going through that, it takes a lot of effort to try and – for them, the dispatch – to get them calm enough to kind of explain what they have going on, getting the age and all of that – for them to be able to get CPR started within 45 seconds, that’s amazing.”

See agreed that was just incredible.

Lutheran EMS paramedic Ryan Reed said when they got there, they went inside the house and weren’t sure right away if Josiphine was viable yet. But when they picked her up, she started moving a little bit. That’s when Reed knew the instructions Carpenter had given Trey were successful.

Reed said he knew that had to be hard to do to one’s own daughter, but told Trey, “it’s awesome that you felt comfortable enough with Nick’s instructions to carry that out, and between you and Nick, you guys are honestly the things that kept her alive for us to get her to the hospital.”

Reed also gave Trey a hat’s off for being able to keep calm.

“If it wasn’t for you guys, man, I probably wouldn’t have made it through it. There’s no way. You guys were the ones to coach me through and help me along and make this possible. I appreciate every one of you guys,” Trey said.

Winona Lake Police Department officer Mandy Escalante also was on the scene, arriving right after the ambulance.

“We got there as they were bringing her out to the ambulance. So when me and my partner, Clemens, had arrived on scene, Leeper had also showed up. He responded off-duty as well. They were bringing her out to the ambulance at the time, and all we saw was you guys standing up in the house at the time,” she said. “I remember all of us kind of standing outside the ambulance, and the moment we heard her cry, it was just this huge sigh of relief.”

With that cry, and knowing whose hands she was in, Escalante said they knew Josiphine was well taken care of.

Since the emergency on Jan. 23, Trey said Josiphine hasn’t had incidents like that. She was very vocal at Tuesday’s gathering.

“There’s something about when it’s a child, a baby, it puts us all on extra alert,” Smith said. “It’s hard to explain, but it’s like ‘extra’ emergency.”

Lutheran EMS Director Alicia Mediano said, “I just think it’s important that you guys know as well, from the responder side, that we don’t always … get to see the other side. So I think it’s great that you guys are willing to come out of your comfort zone and unfortunately relive this day, for them to be able to have that full closure. Because, as Nick said, it was several weeks after before he even knew what’s happening. And sometimes we don’t ever know.”
To Carpenter, Vicki said, “I know it takes a team, but you’re the one that gets called out because you were the one on the phone with him. But thanks to everybody.”
Mediano says they encourage families to learn CPR, especially for children and infants. Free classes are offered at 9 a.m. on the third Saturday of every month at Lutheran Kosciusko Hospital.
“We talk about adult, child, infant, choking, the whole thing,” she said.

Trey said he hadn’t taken any CPR classes since middle school years ago. Carpenter said Trey was very receptive to the instructions he gave him, as well as being calm.

“I just can’t get over the fact that within 45 seconds, he was able to do that, knowing that it was a child, got Dad on the other end, do whatever he needed to, to save the baby. He knew whatever emotions he was having, to put those aside and get through this. It’s pretty darn remarkable,” Smith said of Carpenter.

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