< Back to front page Text size – +

Rescuers lauded for saving girl at East Boston school

E-mail|Link|Comments () June 16, 2009 09:04 PM

By Martin Finucane, Globe Staff

Four months ago, Boston EMT Philip Kennard worked frantically in an auditorium at the East Boston Central Catholic School to revive a 6-year-old girl whose heart had stopped during a gym class.

Today he returned to the same auditorium for a celebration of the rescue of Olivia Quigley, now 7. She was in the front row with her parents, smiling, as officials praised the school's teachers and rescue personnel for bringing her back to life.

"Right there," said Kennard, 25, pointing to the spot on the floor where he and his partner Michael Steiner, 49, treated Olivia that day.

"It's amazing. It's one of those things that can happen only once in an entire career," said Kennard, a tall, thin, young man in the brown uniform of an EMT. "She's made a full recovery, a happy little kid."

Olivia was among a group of first-graders who were having gym in the auditorium on the morning of Friday, Feb. 13. After she collapsed, Teachers Robert Casaletto and Kathleen Carabine performed CPR.

When Kennard and Steiner arrived, Olivia's heart wasn't beating. The two men used a defibrillator to shock and jump start her heart. Two paramedics soon arrived and joined in the rescue.

"After one shock, she not only got a heartbeat back, but she started breathing simultaneously as well," said Steiner, who said the teachers' CPR efforts were key in allowing the defibrillation to work.

About 200 students from the school, from grades 1 to 7, the girls clad in plaid jumpers and the boys in white polo shirts and dark pants, crowded into the auditorium for the ceremony, which included a presentation of proclamations from the Legislature and from the city.

The Rev. Wayne Belchner said a prayer thanking God for the "angels sent to our school that day."

Principal Mary Ann Manfredonia said Olivia's family was truly "a profile in courage" and that Olivia had "battled the odds and is well on her way to a complete recovery."

"Today, four months after that cold winter February day, we gather in this season of spring … to thank God for answering our thousands of prayers for our Olivia," said Manfredonia.

Carabine said she was thankful that she could help.

"This is the very room that it happened in and it's a much different mood today, a much happier mood today, so I feel blessed," she said. "I think there were a lot angels involved that day, absolutely."

The ceremony also included presentation by ZOLL Medical Corp. of a portable defibrillation device to the school and presentation of a check from the school to the Quigley family for $4,706.

Joe Quigley, Olivia's father, said the ceremony was "fabulous."

"It gave us such an opportunity to stand up and actually thank, in person, everybody that was involved, the teachers, the school, Father Wayne from the church, and, of course, the EMTs that responded so well," said Quigley.

"Olivia's doing great. She's just so happy to be back in school. She's so happy to be back with her friends. She wants to be a normal little girl. And she is a normal little girl, she's just been through an awful lot," said Quigley. It's still a mystery why Olivia's heart stopped, Quigley said.

Asked after the ceremony how she was feeling, Olivia said, "Better," with a big smile.

Joe Quigley said the incident underlined the importance of getting parents, coaches, and teachers trained in CPR. He invited people to a class scheduled June 29 at the Garfield Community Magnet School in Revere.

Quigley said it took seven minutes for emergency responders to get to the school. That was "absolutely fantastic," he said, but "in our daughter's case, if CPR hadn't been performed on her, seven minutes would have been too late."