It was the morning of Sunday, June 9, around 10:30 a.m. when Marlton resident Jared Barag, 24, walked outside his house to wash his car.
It was also around that time that officials with the Evesham Fire-Rescue say Barag performed live-saving CPR on his neighbor, Dave Wilson, who had gone into cardiac arrest.
It was for those actions that Barag and other first responders were honored with proclamations at the Aug. 19 Evesham Township Council meeting.
Barag recounted the tale for those in attendance, starting with how that morning, he glanced over to Wilson’s house, only to see Wilson on the ground, not responding when he called his name.
“I got up to him, he’s lying flat on his back, eyes wide open, bloodshot and he’s not breathing,” Barag said. “So I go to tap him ‘Mr. Wilson? Mr. Wilson?’ and all of a sudden he just takes his last breath.”
Barag said he immediately called 911 and they walked him through the steps of CPR,
and soon after, he luckily started to remember his CPR training from high school.
“It just started coming back to me and you know that’s when my high school, six years ago, CPR class came through,” Barag said.
Deputy Mayor Ken D’Andrea, who presented Barag with a proclamation, said his daughter also happens to be an athletic trainer for Cherokee High School, and she was required to take CPR training.
“Jared learned CPR at high school, at Cherokee, and when I read through the proclamation, obviously he saved a life with knowledge he just gained from Cherokee, in addition to calling the first responders and all that, so I want to first recognize Jared for that.”
A couple of minutes after Barag started CPR, Evesham Fire-Rescue Deputy Chief Stephen Addezio, who lives in Barag’s neighborhood, arrived and took over for Barag, and not long after that, other police, EMS and fire department officials arrived.
Capt. Carl Bittenbender with the Evesham Fire-Rescue, who also spoke at the meeting and presented Barag with the Evesham Fire-Rescue Civilian CPR Award, said cases such as having to perform CPR on a neighbor are not unusual.
“Statistically speaking, four out of five cardiac arrests happen at home, so if you do CPR on someone, it is likely to be a friend, a family member, a spouse or a neighbor — in this case a neighbor,” Bittenbender said.
Bittenbender also pointed out the statistical changes in the chances of surviving cardiac arrest between those who have CPR performed on them and those who don’t.
With Barag jumping in to perform CPR on Wilson, Bittenbender said Barag increased Wilson’s chances of survival.
“If you have no CPR done by a bystander on you, your chance of survival is about 10 percent,” Bittenbender said. “When a bystander performs CPR, your odds increase to 30 percent, one in three. What Jared did is he immediately off the bat increased those odds for survival.”
Barag said he was just happy to have been in a position to help.
“It’s absolutely surreal,” Barag said. “Even to this day, I can’t believe that it happened. I’m just so glad that I was there.”
Other awards included:
Evesham Fire-Rescue CPR Save Award: Patrolman Sam Funches, Deputy Chief Steven Addezio, EMT Charlie Brown, EMT Andrea LaFleur, Virtua Paramedic Therese Barry, Paramedic Daniel Newman, and Paramedic Student Katherine Broeker
Evesham Fire-Rescue Unit Citation Award: Fire Lieutenant Gary Gonteski, Firefighter John Maddox Jr., and Firefighter Jeff Corbett
