A Camarillo man was joined by friends, family and emergency medical personnel at the Ventura County Fire Department's Station 52 in Camarillo on Aug. 25 to thank the first responders who saved his life months earlier.
John Nash, 64, and his wife Mary Nash, 65, met with medical responders from the county fire department and emergency services American Medical Response, Inc., to thank them for their swift response to his cardiac arrest in April.
"I can't remember ever having to call 911," Mary Nash said.
Station 52 at 5353 Santa Rosa Road sits about two miles down the road from the Nashs' home on Camarillo's east end. Despite living so close, John and Mary Nash, while having a positive opinion of the fire department, never thought they would have
to use the emergency service.
A cardiac arrest call isn't uncommon, said fire Capt. Robert Miner. However, in his 29 years as a first responder, he said he could only think of one other time that someone he saved visited him afterward.
Miner was one of the medical personnel who responded to the April call. He, along with the other paramedics at the scene, said they don't do the job for the praise, but he is always grateful to see the people he saved doing better.
The fire department saw about 660 cardiac arrest calls countywide in 2025, said Camille Schroepfer, a nurse for the Ventura County Fire Department. Of those calls, only about 27 were what the department considers CPR saves, meaning they met the criteria of having the patient walk out of the hospital without any major deficits, Schroepfer said.
'I don't remember any of it'
Mary Nash said she and her husband were both out and about on April 19 and decided to take a dip in their hot tub when they arrived home.
Her husband had expressed not feeling well, but they both attributed it to him being tired. While they were both soaking, she said that he suddenly slumped and his eyes rolled back in his head.
With her phone just outside the tub, Nash called 911 around 7:38 p.m. and was able to tell dispatch what was happening while she held her husband up and his head above the water.
Medical personnel from both the county fire department and American Medical Response, Inc. arrived in less than seven minutes and began to perform CPR on the Camarillo man before transporting him to a local hospital.
"I don't remember any of it," John Nash said, only recalling waking up in the hospital with his wife by his bedside.
Ernesto Centeno Araujo covers breaking news for the Ventura County Star. He can be reached at ecentenoaraujo@vcstar.com, 805-437-0224 or @ecentenoaraujo on Instagram and X.
This article originally appeared on Ventura County Star: Camarillo man thanks paramedics who saved him during cardiac arrrest
