CLEARWATER, Fla. (WFLA) — Clearwater police detective George Solakian calls it a miracle.
He’s alive, despite suffering a massive heart attack at work in February.
Solakian had what’s called a widowmaker heart attack.
It’s something that happens when you have a blockage in the biggest artery in your heart.
It’s one of, if not the deadliest type of heart attack.
Solakian gives credit to a couple of fire medics who got to him just in the nick of time.
Wednesday, he got a chance to thank them in person, nine months later.
“It was a dark day,” Solakian’s girlfriend Leanne Murphy said. “It’s still blurry, but at the same time you remember it clear as day.”
It was Feb. 5th when Murphy got the call that her boyfriend had a heart attack.
“Oh my gosh I felt like my heart was going to stop because what do you do in this moment?” she explained. “You just feel like what do I do next, where do I go?”
“I had to find out where he was, what room he was in, who he was with,” Murphy continued.
Police said fire medics Isaac Humphreys and Justin Blocker rushed to the scene and ultimately saved Solakian’s life.
Blocker said it took a village
“When we arrived, the fellow officers on scene were doing very high-quality CPR and I firmly believe that’s one of the reasons he’s standing here today,” he explained.
Humphreys echoed that sentiment saying, “There was just two of us on the rescue that day so since they were doing such good CPR and they were very well trained in it, we were able to have them stay on the chest and we were able to do airway measures and give drugs.”
Solakian said he coded nine times, detailing how he almost didn’t make it.
“I believe at one point, they were going to get ready to turn the cart around and just call it and Dr. Lang Lin at Morton Plant Hospital said, ‘No bring him upstairs we need to continue, we need to try.'”
Wednesday, Solakian stood side by side with the fire medics who responded to the call on that February day.
It’s something he describes as a miracle.
“I think of life so differently, you know?” he said. “He wasn’t ready for me up there.”
“I still have work to do,” Solakian continued.
The paramedics said the CPR that happened before they got there was critical in helping to save Solakian’s life.
If you’d like to take a free CPR class, click here.
