Humble CBS firefighter gets his due

By Craig Westcott

He shunned media requests for interviews at the time eschewing any attention to his good deed, but CBS firefighter Paul Evoy couldn’t avoid collecting accolades from council for helping to save the life of a passenger on a flight from Ottawa to St. John’s this past fall.

The crisis happened on the evening of September 14 when Evoy was flying on Porter Airlines back to Newfoundland, after visiting his son Raymond, who is attending the military academy in Kingston, Ontario. During the flight, a 48-year-old man on the flight suffered a serious seizure and eventually went into cardiac arrest.

“Firefighter Evoy had been monitoring the situation from his seat,” said Mayor Darrin Bent, who shared the details of the emergency with council earlier this month.

Initially, a nurse who happened to be on the flight helped the man after he suffered the seizure. When the man started having a heart attack, Evoy jumped up to help.

“He leaped into action once he saw the patient’s condition had deteriorated,” said Bent. “He joined the nurse, who was an ICU nurse, in performing four or five rounds of chest compressions and other life saving manoeuvres. Firefighter Evoy and the nurse were successful in reviving the patient and had him sitting up back in his seat by the time the flight had been diverted to Halifax. The patient walked off the plane.”
Bent said the man is doing well.

“The patient in this case is fortunate to have had a CBS firefighter on that flight,” the mayor added. “Firefighter Evoy’s actions are indicative of the professional dedication shown by the members of our fire department.”

Mayor Bent then presented Evoy with a gift pack on behalf of the Town and council.

“Saving lives is something that our firefighters are trained to do and they do it on a far too regular basis, unfortunately,” said the mayor. “But fortunately, they have the training and the ability and they do it. In this case, it was an exceptional circumstance, and we wanted to make sure that we highlighted the incredible effort and the work done by Firefighter Evoy. While he wasn’t on duty, he was doing his duty as a firefighter with his training all the same. So, thank you again, Firefighter Evoy. I’m sure that patient is very glad you were on the flight with him.”

The Shoreline was notified of Evoy’s actions just after they happened by Royal Canadian Legion member Woodrow French, who felt the firefighter’s efforts were worthy of praise. French noted that despite arriving home in the wee hours that night because of the medical emergency and the diversion to Halifax, Evoy still reported to work at the fire department at 8 a.m. the next morning.

“We don’t recognize our firefighters enough,” said French.

Evoy himself declined an interview about the incident.

“I’m not looking for any praise or anything,” he said when contacted that day. “I just did what was right. There were two nurses as well who were amazing.”