MARATHON — It was a coincidence that paramedic Paula Verin happened to be working in Marathon last month.
But when a call came in on May 6 about a person who had stopped breathing, Verin found herself trying to save the life of a man she had already met on the job a dozen years earlier, although she didn't realize it at the time.
That man was Randy Spekking.
In 2012, he had driven himself to Marathon hospital after experiencing sweating and other symptoms.
Arrangements were quickly made to fly him to Thunder Bay, and Verin and a co-worker with Superior North EMS were assigned to take him from the hospital to the airport.
But just as the two paramedics arrived in his room, he went into cardiac arrest.
"I immediately started CPR," Verin recalled in an interview with Dougall Media.
After a doctor applied paddles to shock Spekking's heart, Verin resumed CPR, and less than a minute later noticed him moving, enabling her to declare "we got him back."
"I was lucky, lucky, lucky," 48-year-old Spekking said Tuesday.
Last month – 12 years later – history repeated itself.
This time Spekking was helping with lawncare in the backyard of a neighbour's home when he fell unconscious with vital signs absent.
Again, Verin responded to the call, along with another co-worker, but they found an off-duty OPP officer already on the scene doing chest compressions.
"Thank goodness," she said. "That is critical in order for us to be able to shock when we get to the scene."
Verin called the officer, who was recognized for his efforts last month, "the real hero in the story."
She and her partner shocked Spekking's heart twice, "and then we got him back."
It was only after the Superior North EMS crew asked him and his family for their names that Verin realized this was the same man she had administered CPR to in 2012.
Spekking now has a pacemaker in his chest, and is doing well.
Verin normally works as an EMS superintendent in another town, but just happened to be filling in at Marathon at the time that Spekking had his second life-threatening incident.
She said the two instances are an example of what can make being a paramedic so gratifying.
"You always think you've seen it all, and then something like this happens that you can never even imagine. It's just a very, very rewarding profession."
Verin said she'd like to see more people receive CPR training.
As for Spekking, he now realizes that when he started feeling unwell last month, he should have sought help sooner.
"I was a little bit dizzy the day before. But because of COVID and stuff like that, there's always some issues. You don't want to bother the hospitals because it might be a cold. I didn't suspect anything with the heart again."
He and Verin continue to exchange hugs whenever they run into each other.
"Every time I see him, it makes my day," she said.
Superior North EMS is operated by the City of Thunder Bay and employs 200 paramedics plus 40 administrative and support staff in 18 locations across the District of Thunder Bay.
