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Spokane Valley resident thanks fire department for saving her mother’s life

Lori Ragan, holding Aurora, 2, talks Thursday with Spokane Valley fire Commissioner John Guarisco, left, Battallion Chief Sean Barrett, Captain Brad Huffman, Frank Duarte and Dylan Shirey to thank the firefighters who helped her mother through a heart attack. Although her mother died four months later, she said her mother lived long enough to hear Aurora say “I love you, Nana,” before she died. Ragan visited the Spokane Valley Fire Department Engine 1 station at 10319 E. Sprague Ave. (Jesse Tinsley/THE SPOKESMAN-REVI)
By Emily White emilyw@spokesman.com(509) 459-5444

Lori Ragan’s mother, Sherry Distefano, came to visit Ragan and her 2-year-old daughter, Aurora, at their apartment in Spokane Valley in March. Three days later, Ragan was on the phone with Captain Brad Huffman as Distefano was gasping for air.

Huffman and his team saved Distefano’s life that day, giving Ragan and her family four more months with her before she died in July. The last conversation Ragan had with her mom was about the fire department and public safety workers.

“She said, ‘I just wish I had the ability to tell everybody thank you, because they don’t get that enough,’ ” Ragan said. “I wanted to make sure I fulfilled that last wish, not only for her, but for me.”

On Wednesday morning, the crew that responded to Ragan’s call on March 8 stood in a formal line, navy blue uniforms pressed and badges shining, waiting to greet Ragan and Aurora. Ragan handed the men chocolate cupcakes with perfect peaks of frosting and thanked each of them for saving her mother.

“Without you guys, my daughter wouldn’t have ever been able to say ‘I love you’ to my mom,” Ragan said.

Distefano had previously been diagnosed with congestive heart failure.

“When she visited, it was one episode after another episode,” Ragan said.

Crew from Spokane Valley Fire Department Engine 1 arrived seconds after Ragan called them, Huffman said. The apartment Ragan lives in is about a block away from the station.

Distefano was the first person Huffman had seen that far into a heart attack – and she was standing when they got to the apartment.

“She was standing up and talking to us. She seemed comfortable,” Distefano said.

It wasn’t long before Distefano was in the ambulance and receiving treatment for her heart attack.

She flatlined on the way to the hospital, Huffman said.

Huffman and his team treated her with an anti-arrhythmic drug, put an IV into her shoulder and gave her one round of CPR.

After getting her heart beating again, Huffman and his team dropped Distefano at the hospital and drove back to the station. They rarely hear from their patients after an ambulance ride.

“A lot of times we get their pulses back, but we don’t get to know what the outcome of our patient is,” Huffman said. “We do this all the time, every day. But it’s not often that we get to really know what happened or how our patient did.”

In August, Spokane Valley firefighters answered more than 2,000 calls for service and averaged about 73 calls for service every day.

To actually get an update from Distefano’s family is amazing, Huffman said.

“The fire department is full of amazing people,” Ragan said. “I’m really glad they were able to help my little family because without them, I don’t know where I would be.”