Florida Firefighters Help Save Family's Dalmatian

EDGEWATER, Fla. - On June 19, Edgewater Fire-Rescue's Engine 57 was dispatched to a home on Victory Palm Drive in the Florida Shores neighborhood for an unresponsive patient at approximately 6:30 pm.

Lt. Jim Jollie, Firefighter/Paramedic Dennis Meeske and Firefighter/EMT John Halcomb responded to the call. As with every emergency call, the guys had little information to go by, and were ready for whatever they might find.

Upon arrival, the crew grabbed their equipment and rushed into the house of Virginia Nevard. The family quickly rushed the responders to a bedroom where they found little Molly breathing 60 times a minute, unresponsive and unconscious.

Molly, however, was not the patient they expected to find. Unconscious she was, but human she was not. A functional part of the Nevard family, Molly was a 12-year-old Dalmatian. She had gotten into a plastic donut bag to munch on what was inside, but had apparently gotten her head caught in the bag in the process. In a panic, 7-year-old Kyle Nevard called 911 but then hung up. Law enforcement and rescue were dispatched to the address because of the 911 disconnect.

Hardly thrown off track, the firefighters went about their routine and pulled out their oxygen bottle, then rushed out to the truck to grab a specially designed respiratory mask for dogs.

They applied high-flow oxygen to the mask and placed it over Molly