First responders honored for saving life
The Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association presented a group of Adams Township and Butler County first responders with Heart Saver pins in honor of their work saving the life of Butler County resident Dante Colorito.
The awards were given at an Adams Township Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday night, attended by more than 50 people.
Colorito, 21, of Evans City, had collapsed in his yard of a cardiac arrest while mowing grass on May 31.
Members of the Evans City-Seven Fields Regional Police Department, Adams Township Police Department, Callery Volunteer Fire Company, Butler County 911, Quality EMS, and Stat MedEvac responded to get Colorito to UPMC Passavant-Cranberry and later to the UPMC Presbyterian Post Cardiac Arrest Service team.
Colorito was discharged from the hospital only a few days later, on June 4.“Cardiac arrest out of hospitals has a very dismal survival rate, around 10%,” said Cheryl Rickens, chairwoman of the Western Pennsylvania chapter of the Sudden Cardiac Arrest Association. “When an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest has a successful event, it's something that we try to pull everyone together and recognize.“It's a chance to say: This one, we did it,” she said. “It all came together.”At the meeting, Rickens congratulated everyone who was part of the “chain of survival,” including awareness and action, calling 911, early CPR, early defibrillation, professional responders, transport to a hospital and rehab and recovery.“Tonight, we're celebrating all seven of those steps coming together,” she said. “We're here this evening to celebrate all of these events that occurred in a very timely fashion so that this 21-year-old male is alive today.”Colorito's mother Patricia Weale, stepfather Mike Weale, father Alan Colorito and grandfather Tom Bazylak attended the ceremony. Colorito himself was not present.
“Thank you for being part of the team that has my son here today,” Weale said, addressing the assembled first responders. “I'm so proud to be a part of this community.”The automated external defibrillator, or AED, that was used to save Colorito's life was one of more than 30 AEDs purchased toward the end of 2020 by the Adams Township Board of Supervisors in an expansion of the AED program.“We want to thank you guys for everything,” said Adams Board Supervisor Russell R. Ford. “The conversations that we had (about getting the AEDs) was so that they'd be consistent across the board, because how could you put a price tag on a life? That was the important part.”For Curt Huffman, of the Callery Volunteer Fire Company, it was his fourth time being honored for assisting a cardiac arrest survivor.“It's pretty rare that you have a full recovery, someone who's able to come back and lead a productive life,” Huffman said. “This is a relatively younger and healthy kid. We've been in EMS for 15-20 years, and it's a rare occasion to have something turn out like this.”
