LAMORINDA WEEKLY | MOFD firefighters save the life of a cyclist in Orinda


From left, MOFD firefighter-paramedic Kevin Brashem, Craig Schlatter, and MOFD engineer Dan Elbanna. Photo Nick Marnell

Saturday morning, April 21, a bicyclist alerted the crew at Moraga-Orinda Fire District Station 45 that a fellow cyclist was down on Camino Sobrante in Orinda. Before the call was even dispatched, firefighters arrived at the scene of a man who had suffered a cardiac emergency.

"We got there at 9:09, and at 9:11 we gave him his first shock," said MOFD engineer Daniel Elbanna, who described how the patient, after being revived by a third shock, groggily complained only about the IV needle that was bothering his leg. Less than 20 minutes after the first responders arrived, the patient was on his way to John Muir Medical Center in Walnut Creek.

"To have a patient who was dead a few minutes ago complaining about knee pain was phenomenal," Elbanna said. "It was a horrible thing that happened, but the outcome? We've been glowing about it for weeks."

"It was truly an example of great teamwork, and that is why I'm here today," Craig Schlatter, the downed bicyclist, said among family, friends and firefighters at the MOFD May 16 district meeting.