The heroism of first responders in Muskoka was on full display during an event hosted by the Rotary Club of Gravenhurst.
The event was held Thursday afternoon at the Gravenhurst Opera House.
Long-time Rotarian John Cooper served as host and said the “extraordinary stories of bravery and competence” perfectly align with Rotary International’s motto of “service above self.”
The Club has been honouring first responders once a year since 2019.
Stuart McKinnon, deputy chief of Muskoka Paramedic Services (MPS), detailed how Michael Righetti and Jack Gilbert saved the life of a senior who was dealing with chest pain. “It’s a fairly common call that we respond to and one that we train well for,” he explained.
He says when the pair were called to a residence in Bracebridge on Jan. 22, 2024, they determined the person was having a severe heart attack, also known as an ST-elevated myocardial infarction (STEMI).
Since 2021, McKinnon says MPS has partnered with the Royal Victoria Regional Health Centre (RVH) in Barrie to provide better heart attack care for patients. He explains it allows paramedics to take a patient directly to RVH.
He says Righetti and Gilbert made the call to do just that.
With sirens blaring as they sped down Hwy. 11 towards Barrie, McKinnon says the patient’s heart stopped. Righetti made the call to go to the Soldiers’ Memorial Hospital in Orillia where the patient was stabilized and they continued to Barrie.
“The patient made it,” says McKinnon.
He credits the paramedics’ quick thinking and sharp skills for knowing what to do, adding decisions like the one made by Righetti and Gilbert are “made in an instant.”
As part of being honoured by Rotary, the pair were given $125 to donate to a charity of their choice. They decided to give the money to Hospice Muskoka.
Staff Sergeant Wade Beebe with the Bracebridge detachment of the Ontario Provincial Police (OPP) says multiple officers made “supreme efforts to save lives.”
Provincial Const. Parcells, Noakes, and Kean were on hand for the ceremony, but Beebe also credited MPS, the Georgian Bay Fire Department, and members of the OPP’s Aviation Unit for saving the life of a person who fell “15 to 20 feet” off of a cliff after falling from their all-terrain vehicle (ATV).
He explains three people were travelling on their ATVs when the fall happened.
They had “extremely severe injuries and it was believed they would need to be extracted by helicopter. However, Beebe says ORNGE Air Ambulance was unavailable, so they called in the OPP Aviation Unit. However, he says there was another problem: they had no place to land.
Beebe says the quick-thinking officers on the ground started cutting down trees to clear a path for it to land.
After stabilizing the person, the officers found they had serious contusions to their head along with internal injuries and were unsure if a helicopter was the right way to get them to the hospital.
They, along with firefighters, decided to wait for a ground unit to transport the injured rider to the hospital.
“It was extremely impressive to see their push to get there,” says Beebe.
He adds it was a “long haul” to get the injured person to safety, but they got it done.
“This is a demonstration of the combined effort of emergency services in the District of Muskoka,” says Beebe.
The officers made their $125 donation to MiND-AID.
Also at the ceremony, Jared Cayley, Fire Chief for the Gravenhurst Fire Department, detailed how in the past year, they’ve made substantial improvements to their operations, including new equipment and improving the software they use to keep them organized.
Rather than picking one person to honour, Cayley decided to salute his entire staff, including the handful of new recruits who joined the fire department in the past 12 months.
