By Rachel Engel
SPOKANE, Wash. — In December 2021, Mike Rossi woke up on the floor in the middle of a cardiac arrest.
“I thought I was having a work dream like I was working on a medical call,” said Rossi, a 29-year fire service veteran. “Then I realized the perspective was all wrong.”
Down the hall, Rossi’s son, Alex, who is also a firefighter, was roused awake by his uncle who relayed his father’s condition. Alex immediately began performing CPR on his father as he waited for first responders to arrive, Newsweek reported.
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“I swapped into autopilot and just did the CPR I was trained to do,” he told Newsweek. “I’m still surprised I was able to do so because in my head I was like, ‘This is my dad. I can’t believe this is happening.’”
Once Missoula firefighters arrived, the crew immediately started “Pit Crew CPR,” a technique that swaps new people into the CPR rotation to maintain effective and consistent compressions.
Rossi is back at work after being fitted for a pacemaker. Looking back on the incident, it is still surreal to know it was his son that started life-saving measures.
“I think about Alex when he was a little baby and brought him home from the hospital and, you know, you’re rocking this baby in your arms. Most people don’t think, ‘Oh yeah, one day this kid’s going to save my life,’” he said. “It’s the furthest thing from your mind. On so many levels, it just kind of blows my mind.”
Rossi’s son was honored by the SFD with a pin given to all providers who rescue a patient by starting CPR.
“This [pin] was awarded to me from my district. They hand these pins out when someone saves someone with CPR,” he told the magazine. “So they gave me this for saving my dad.”