Angela Wintermute just wasn’t feeling well the evening of July 11, 2026. Her husband, Marc, almost drove her to the emergency room, but decided to call 911 instead.
It was life-saving decision.
Angela’s heart would stop in the ambulance, leaving her life in the hands of the Strongsville paramedics who were performing CPR.
On Sept. 3, Angela and Marc paid a visit to Station 4 on Prospect Road to personally thank the three paramedics who brought Angela back to life.
“I just want to shake the hands of the men who saved my beautiful wife,” Marc said.
Jason March, Lee Brass and Matt Janosek each hugged Angela. They’d gotten a few updates early on, and were surprised and happy to see her up and around.
“We didn’t know how she was – we were just hopeful,” March said.
Angela, who had no history of heart problems, was suffering from a blocked valve. She received a stent and spent 18 days at Southwest General, then went to a rehab facility before recently going home. “If it wasn’t for you, I wouldn’t be here,” she told the crew.
The couple said they received excellent care throughout Angela's recovery -- including being cared for by their next-door neighbor, who is a nurse at Southwest.
Fire Chief Jack Draves said the American Heart Association's "chain of survival" was at play in this case, with six interconnected links boosting a patient's chance for recovery. The initial links involve identifying the problem and starting CPR and other resuscitation efforts promptly.
"Every single doctor said the CPR was done exactly right," Marc said.
Marc gave each of the three firemedics a pen he had designed and made. Draves presented Angela with a Strongsville Fire Department T-shirt “so you don’t forget us.”
Marc said he couldn’t “come up with the words to thank you enough,” and Angela, who remembers little from her ride to the hospital, agreed. “I’m just so glad this crew knew exactly what to do.”
