A volunteer firefighter was helping fight a blaze in Blaine County at the end of March when medics thought he may have breathed in too much smoke. It turned out to be much more serious than that.
Ty Gardner with the Loyal Fire Department had a heart attack and then had more complications. Now, he tells the story of his survival from his hospital.
“I feel much better. That right there is about all I got left,” Ty said, showing tubes still connected to his body. “That should be out this afternoon—it’s a swan line.”
Considering he had a breathing tube last week and his heart stopped several times, Ty said he is feeling pretty good, despite having to spend Easter weekend in the hospital.
“From what I understand, we got to (highways) 33 and 81 when they hooked a 12-lead onto me and found out that I was pretty much dead,” Ty said.
Ty’s brother spoke to KOCO 5 after he was hospitalized, saying Ty battled the Hitchcock Fire in Blaine County. He decided to get checked out by medics because he thought he had smoke inhalation. It turned out to be a heart attack.
“They’re thinking three or four times they had to resuscitate me before I was actually back,” Ty said. “David Macy was there at the right place and right time.”
Macy is the deputy director of operations for Pafford Medical Services in the Western Oklahoma Region, and he is the one who made Ty head to the hospital before the situation got even more serious.
